The Chains are On: Royal
by Khratz
Summary: (P5 Royal / JJBA Crossover) Akira Kurusu, accused of a crime he didn't commit, arrives at Tokyo with the weight of despair and injustice on his back. But when he finds a hidden power inside him, he and his comrades will embark in a quest to clean the evil that lurks inside the depths of society and break the chains of destiny. (Royal Spoilers)
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or JJBA. Also, read the Author's Notes.**

**Prologue**

* * *

"Come here, kitty. I'm not gonna hurt you", Akira softly called, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the dimly lit street and making out the form of the small feline in front of him.

The black furry animal stared at him with yellow piercing eyes, readying itself to either fight or flight. From the corner it was standing on, there were few options for an escapade, the most prominent one being jumping the fence behind it and running for its life. Akira stood on one knee, making strange 'psst' sounds with his mouth while keeping his posture as least threatening as possible, trying to convince the cat that he only wanted to pet it . He liked cats, that was a fact, but it was unusual for him to simply go out of his way and try to pet the first stray he found on the street. Usually, the calm and aloof sixteen years old boy would walk casually without looking to his sides or paying any attention to the small details that composed his small hometown. And _small _it was, the kind of town where everyone knew each other, where your friend's parents were also lifelong friends who went out together for high school reunions, where no gossip would slip unnoticed. One of such gossips would certainly surface on the next morning, given Akira's certainty that one of Aiko's neighbors had peeked through his windows the exact moment that the girl had stopped besides him in front of her house and…

He smiled. 'Let them talk', he thought: it wouldn't make him less happy about the whole thing, given that his joy had been enough to make him stop halfway through the path to his home and grin like an idiot in the middle of the street. If anyone saw him doing it, the person (who probably knew him since he was a little boy, along with his parents and grandparents) would be quite shocked by the display of emotion on the usually serious and quiet boy. In truth, Akira was a very social person, despite his cold demeanor, something that came as a surprise to anyone who met him. He considered most of the student body at his school at least good acquaintances, with a couple of actual friends here and there. His grades were good, his appearance had been described as 'unorthodoxly attractive' (a statement that had both confused and flattered him), and while he wasn't any good in sports, his good attitude about it had earned the respect of the school's baseball team, even if his pitch needed a lot of working. His only 'experience' with the sport was through a really old video-game he used to play as a child.

_"Oh, That's a Baseball!",_ the game's jingle echoed on his head the moment he thought about it. He giggled at the memory.

The cat hissed at the sound, suddenly jumping on the fence and sprinting away, disappearing on the darkness. Akira sighed and lifted himself, straightening his clothes and walking away. 'Maybe i'm not a cat person after all', he mused, a small smile tugging the corner of his lips. He wasn't even sure why he had stopped in the middle of the street to interact with the feline, his only guess being that he felt particularly happy at that moment, enough so that he allowed himself to behave a little silly while no one was looking. Also, Aiko liked cats.

He slowly lifted his finger towards his lips, the warm sensation still lingering on them, even after some good ten minutes. It was his first, after all, and he was probably also one of the first among his friends to do such a feat. Oh, sure, Souji loved to boast around about how much of a sex machine he was, and Takeda swore on his unborn children that he had a date set up with Asumi, the elected 'hottest girl in school', but Akira knew they were full of shit. Hell, Akira himself usually spent his weekends reading manga and listening to music, and was comfortable with that. He felt no need to partake in the bravado.

It had been Aiko who approached him first. While her giggling friends watched from a distance, the pretty dark haired girl, wearing the usual school uniform with her own dark stockings added to the outfit (he really liked that detail), called him while he grabbed his belongings on the locker room, her disarming smile making his heart flutter. Akira had held his posture, smiling back at her while she told the boy that she had something of a crush on him, before suggesting that the two of them should hang out, have some ice-cream or catch a movie. A surprisingly bold move, considering the traditional town they grew up in: every week gossips about love letters and confessions filled the school halls, many preferring the old fashioned ways of love. Aiko was an exception, something that Akira was immensely glad: he thought that the oh-so japanese tradition was rather silly, prefering to talk about such things directly. And so, they had ice-cream, they watched a movie about a psychopath who baked for money, and Akira accompanied Aiko to her doorstep in the dead of night.

He couldn't remember the conversation they had at the front door, but he sure remembered the kiss. It had been warm and wet, a sensation he had long sought after and even so, every aspect of it came as a surprise to him, not even his wildest dreams coming close. He felt embarrassed by his own inexperience compared to the girl (who clearly knew what she was doing), but the smile she gave him afterwards made his worries disappear.

_"See you tomorrow, Akira-kun"_, she had whispered with a smooth and warm tone, smiling. As simple as the date and those words had been, Akira found himself unable to control his own hormones for a few seconds, prompting him to bring to the forefront of him mind the most disgusting thing he could think of. Curiously, he remembered a panel from _Pink Dark Boy_ where a character had the skin of his face peeled off as if it were a book, the illustration leaving no room for imagination. The panel had creeped Akira immensely, sementing in his mind that the author truly was the genius everyone though he was. He really needed to buy the next volume.

As his body settled down, the boy resumed his pace, his mind wandering once again towards Aiko. Even with the events of the day, he still had a few questions stirring on his mind: were they dating? Should the two of them enter the class together and announce their relationship? Should he be a little bolder and suggest that they should-

_'Christ, calm down, you pervert'_, he chided himself mentally, clicking his tongue against his teeth.

They had gone on a date, and they had kissed, that was all. He couldn't jump to conclusions just because they had known each other for years, being good acquaintances that talked from time to time, even if she did admit that she had a crush on him. This was completely new territory for him, one he should tread lightly: he didn't want her to think he was some idiot virgin who got too excited. Yes, he was the cool headed one, the one who kept his posture aways. He had to be mature about it.

_Yeah_, right. As if he wasn't almost jumping with joy. He wondered if it was like this for everyone. God, he hoped so.

He reached for the pack of coffee flavored gums inside his pocket, chewing one as a way to keep his nerves calm. While he wasn't exactly a coffee fanboy, that particular brand had always been a favorite of his, the one with a small black and white dog as the mascot, grinning smugly at the consumer. He walked at a slow pace, as he had no need to hurry: his parents, even when they were home, didn't care much about his comings and goings, as long as his grades were good enough and he kept himself out of trouble. Long ago he had come to accept his parent's dismissive attitude, even if sometimes if felt strange having the two people who were supposed to be the most important on a children's life being so distant. Like their work was more important than their child. He couldn't complain, of course: their money kept him fed and with a roof above his head, so he simply kept those feelings buried inside him. No need to stir those matters.

He felt something vibrating inside his pocket, and quickly checked his phone for any messages. The screen displayed the name 'TAKEDA' in bold letters, making Akira sigh and open the text.

_T: 'so, you scored or nah?'_

Very blunt, as always. He quickly replied the text.

_A: 'i'll tell you tomorrow'_

_T: 'come ooon, i want the details'_

_T: 'i mean, i could do a lot better, but she's kinda hot, so good for you'_

Akira frowned for a second. While Takeda was his friend, he could be something of a jerk sometimes.

A: _'oh yeah? so tell me: how did it went with Asumi?'_

Takeda went silent for a minute, before replying.

_T: 'fricking awesome, obviously. that girl knows how to please a man, if ya catch my drift'_

Akira let out a sigh at the obvious lie: Takeda seemed to like threading some dangerous ground. If word got around that he was making such claims, then his social life was basically over, but even so the guy still kept at it. One day his bullshit would caught up with him, like Akira had warned him every time, and everytime Takeda went on the defensive, saying Akira was 'jealous' of him or something like that, while Souji simply laughed. It had begun to become a problem, with Takeda making up stories whenever he saw an opportunity to gain something, be it popularity or the attention of some girls.

Many months later, while retelling his story, Akira would still vividly remember the exact moment he was about to text Takeda back, to tell him once again to stop lying before things went out of control. That instead of lying he should, if he even had the guts, ask Asumi on an actual date. That if she turned him down, maybe he could learn some humility.

Because the moment his finger touched the phone, he heard a scream.

Akira lifted his head, the sudden sound almost making him drop his phone. He froze in place, looking around in search of the one responsible for the yell. It had been a bit muffled, but its echoes told him that the person in trouble was at the end of the street.

Akira paused again, considering his options: maybe there was a robbery occurring, or some pervert was harassing some woman (considering the scream had sounded female in origin), or perhaps both. While Akira wasn't particularly strong or skilled in an martial art, his tall figure and serious expression had more than once spared him of conflict with troublemakers, something he had an ounce of pride in. He didn't even knew if he could do something to help, considering a quick call to the police.

_"Help!",_ he heard the voice again, this time making him grit his teeth. It was a small town, with a small police corp, and it would take more than a few minutes for the to arrive at the scene. And judging by the desperation on the woman's voice, he had no time to lose.

And so, Akira decided to sprint towards the screaming woman, determination on his eyes as he quickly made his way through the narrow streets. He could hardly explain why he acted in such a manner: maybe his sense of guilt? He never liked letting people step on others, but at that time of the evening, in some dark corner of the suburbs, he could find something way more serious than some 7° grade bully or any of the assholes he had encountered in his school years. It was a small town with a practically _null_ rate of murder, so whatever was happening, it sounded pretty different from the usual crimes that happened around those parts. Some theft, some bribery, maybe domestic violence, but that was it. He wasn't in Tokyo or New York, or any big city where murder and sexual assault were unfortunately common.

His curiosity was sated as he approached the source of the ruckus: from his point of view, he saw a man trying to drag a woman inside a black car, forcibly grabbing her arm as the woman squealed and screeched. He hesitated, asserting the situation: he had never seen that man around those parts, but the woman seemed familiar somehow. Maybe a neighbor of his, getting involved with the wrong crowd and paying the price for it, suggested the cowardly part of himself. The gritted his teeth again, considering if he should help the woman or walk away: if he did help her, things could go sour for him, but if he simply walked away, no one would know.

When he considered the safe approach, he was startled by a thumping noise: his heartbeat as loud as a bell inside his chest. It taunted him momentarily, as if asking him with a booming voice:

_'Are you gonna do something, or are you going to just stand there?'_

A drop of sweat rolled on the side of his face. Was he a coward? Would that option really benefit him? Could he live with the notion that he had simply abandoned that woman to her fate in the hands of some creep?

His heart thumped again, making the decision for him. His knuckled closed shut, and he walked forward.

As he approached the duo, he could make out their features more clearly: the man was a tall and muscular, wearing a dark suit sporting yellow shades below a completely bald head, all in all looking like some businessman or politician. On his chin, a small goatee that made his snarling expression even more evident: he was stumbling to get a grasp of the woman's arm, obviously drunk or under the effect of some drug, judging by his slurred demands.

"You fucking _bitch_", he dragged his tongue, the effort of pulling her towards him taking its toll. As for the woman, Akira knew he recognized from somewhere: she was the daughter of one of his neighbors, a young and beautiful woman who Akira had stolen a few discreet glances whenever he saw her on his way to school. The brunette wore a blue dress that hugged her body, the standard 'club style', if there were any clubs on that town, and seemed to be desperate to free herself from the man's clutches. Her efforts were mostly in vain, as the man's physical superiority made itself clear, with him forcefully hugging her and groping the woman, earning a yelp and another screech from her.

Akira approached the duo, something stirring inside of him as the words mindlessly came out of his mouth.

"Let go of her!", he demanded, making the man lift his head in confusion, his brief moment of distraction allowing the woman to escape his grasp as run towards Akira, seeking protection behind the tall boy.

"P-please, he's drunk!", she stammered, looking at Akira with pleading eyes. "We gotta call the police!"

The man came out of his stupor, laughing ruefully at the woman's words.

"The police, you dumb skank?", he snorted, trying to support himself on the roof of his car. "Who do you think I am, huh? You think the police is gonna help you?"

He took a step forward, making Akira tense and the woman to clutch herself on his back, tears coming out of her fear struck eyes. The man turned his attention towards the boy, pointing a finger in his direction.

"And _you_, you nosy brat!", he slurred again, his expression even more aggressive. "You should've stayed in bed like a good kid, instead of messing with my business!"

Akira's eyes narrowed, his mouth closed in an expression of disgust. The man, drunk as a skunk, was trying to intimidate him with slurred words and threats, something that gave him pause until he saw a door in a neighbor house open.

"What's going on out there?", a man's voice echoed on the street. "Stop making noise! I'm calling the police!"

Suddenly, the whole neighborhood seemed to awake in unison, many families walking out their doors to see what all the fuss was about. The bald man clicked his tongue against his teeth as the sound of a police car came from the end of the street.

"You…", he turned to look at Akira, lifting his hands and snarling menacingly at the boy, making him step back, the woman still clutching him. "_You fuckingg-"_

The man suddenly stepped on his own foot, his drunkenness betraying him as he fell face first to the ground, his nose making a wet cracking noise. Akira felt the woman flinch, as he stared with wide eyes at the scene.

"Damn, that one is completely wasted", some neighborhood woman commented, crossing her arms and snickering from the porch of her home.

"Never seen that one around these parts", another man remarked, before huffing. "Damn drunkards, loitering around our town."

As the man lifted himself up, holding his hand in front of his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding coming from it, the police approached the scene.

"Everyone back to your homes! The situation is under control!", a tall officer yelled, but few people actually obliged. As he looked at the trio, his face went cold with realization. "S-sir? I'm sorry, I wasn't aware you were around these parts!"

Akira raised an eyebrow, confuse at the respect the officer directed towards the drunk man. Was the man his superior?

"_Argh_, shut up, you incompetent swine!", the man roared, making the officer flinch, and pointed a finger in Akira's direction. "Arrest that kid! He punched me, that's aggression!"

"Yeah, if you count your drunk ass falling on the ground as aggression", laughed some spectator. A few laughs were heard among the crowd, making the bald man go red with rage.

"Y-you fell on your own!", the brunette behind Akira chimed in, her brows twisted in disgust at the man. "He tried to force me inside his car! He's the one who's assaulting!"

The bald man gritted his teeth, his piercing eyes boring holes on the woman, who again hid herself behind the silent Akira, who simply listened to the conversation.

"Officer", he spoke slowly, as if teaching a petulant child. "I'll give you _five seconds_ to arrest this man. You don't want to see the consequences of defying my orders."

"S-sir, I don't think we can do that", the officer meekly said, his voice now a whisper. "There's too many witnesses. If you could, perhaps, come to the police station with me, we could-"

It happened in an instant, a fleeting moment that made Akira's eyes widen in surprise. The officer wasn't able to finish the sentence, as something _invisible _grabbed his throat, lifting him a few centimeters in the air. Akira's mouth went agape, believing his mind was playing tricks with him as he stared at the absurdity of the situation. The officer's face went red as he gasped for air, his hands clutching at the nothingness that surrounded his throat.

But not to Akira: in the fleeting moment between the officer's words and his suffocation, he saw something _impossible._

And arm made of gold, fast as a bullet.

The bald man slowly chuckled, raising his head high as the crowd around them started to gasp in terror at the policeman's struggle.

"Well, it's no surprise to see that you worms need a bit of discipline", he sneered, and at the same moment the policeman fell to the ground, gasping for air. The bald man's face took an sinister expression, a smile tugging his lips. "You don't seem to understand the position you are in, how ignorant and foolish you all are compared to someone of my caliber."

He turned to the crowd, laughing at the sight of the gasps and indignation coming from them.

"What? It is merely the truth: a strong hand is needed to steer this country towards the golden path, the path of glory", he proclaimed, before turning to look at Akira, who flinched a the man's cold gaze.

"But it seems some people take pleasure in messing with things beyond their lever. Such foolishness, to interfere with my business", he spoke in a cold tone, very different from the tone he had adopted before. His eyes bore holes in Akira's, and the boy swallowed as his eyes turned yellow for a fleeting moment. Was he hallucinating? "It seems i'll need to punish you for your meddling, you worthless brat."

The woman's behind Akira was shaking in fear, also having no clue of what the man was talking about. "W-what are you…?"

The man cleaned his bloody nose, before slowly approaching Akira, making the boy step backwards in fear. The man, who before looked like some slouched drunk, now stood tall as a tower, glaring at him with wickedness and malice. Akira's heart thumped, trying to make him act, to make him do _anything_, but he remained frozen as something even more unbelievable happened next.

From the man's back, he saw a _blur_. A form too dim and malformed that seemed to stand beside him, the shadow of red eyes appearing where its head should be. Akira couldn't move a muscle as the form leered alongside the bald man, staring at Akira with what seemed like a killing intent.

It was golden as the sun, and the vision made Akira want to scream. But no sound came from his throat.

"I'm the one who will steer the country towards its proper path", the man continued, raising his hand as the form behind him mimicked his movement. "I'll be the one to make the sun rise again in this country of _fools and delusional brats!"_

He lifted his finger upwards and pulled it down in the form of a hook, as if tugging something. The figure did the same, making the man smile with glee while his golden eyes filled with contempt glared at Akira.

**"I am the ****『****Heart of the Sunrise****』****. It will be as I command."**

Akira blinked, and everything changed.

It rained, heavy droplets falling on his face as he suddenly found himself surrounded by police officers holding his arms, making him squirm in place.

"W-what the… what is going on?", he managed to yell, earning a smack from one of his handlers.

"You're getting arrested, you little thug!", the strong officer sneered. "Don't know where you're from, but aggression is still a crime around these parts!"

Akira gasped, looking around the scene trying to understand what was happening: in one moment, there were crowds of people watching as the drunk man made a fool of himself, the single officer was on the ground, handled by some strange aura that had surrounded the man.

But now there was no one on the streets, only Akira, a dozen police officers and the bald man, who looked at him with utter contempt.

"The youth nowadays is doomed, I tell you", he sneered, accepting a tissue from an officer and cleaning his bloody nose. "I should do something about it. After all, the young ones should be our future."

Akira stammered, not understanding the situation that he was on. What the hell happened? Had he been knocked down at some point? It didn't make any sense.

"This is ridiculous! You saw him fall on his own! I'm innocent!", he yelled, trying to reason the the policeman, but they all laughed at his expense.

"What a load of bullshit, kid", another officer chuckled. "Did your mother not teach not to lie? We got a witness here: she saw everything."

Akira glanced towards his side, spotting a lone woman hugging her chest and shaking. Yes, that's right! She _knew! _She knew he had fallen on his own, and that he was innocent!

"H-hey! You know me, i'm your neighbor! You know i'm innocent! He was drunk, you saw him fall!", he called her, making his handlers grip his arms more violently, a flinch running through his body. The woman lifted her head to look at him, her eyes wet with tears and rain.

"_Please_, tell them the truth!", Akira pleaded upon the woman's silence. "_I'm innocent!"_

The woman stared straight into his eyes, her own struck with fear. Akira had seen her cowering behind him, clutching his shirt for protection and accusing the bald man of his crimes. He stared back at her, his eyes _imploring _her to tell them the truth, tell them what really happened.

Her eyes were full of fear, but Akira suddenly realized that she wasn't afraid of the man, of his aggression or his word. As she stared at him with those eyes and pointed her finger at him, Akira came to a hollow realization.

She was afraid of _him_.

"H-he… was the one who punched that gentleman. I saw _everything_", she accused him, stammering upon his words.

Akira's world came to a still. His eyes widened, and not a single word came out of his mouth as the policeman dragged him toward the car. His clothes and hair were wet with the rain, making them clutch to his skin as they tossed him inside.

Instead of the bench, Akira found himself thrown in a large body of reddish water, sinking deeper and deeper as he struggled to breathe. His arms squirmed as he called for someone, for _anyone_ to help, as his body sank to the depths of despair.

_'Takeda! Aiko! Mom, dad! Someone, PLEASE!"_

The only answer he got was the cackling laughter of a golden giant looming above him, as the car started to make its way towards the police station.

And then, Akira Kurusu's fate was sealed.

* * *

"Master, it's cold out here", the servant holding the umbrella spoke to a small man beside him, offering his blue and yellow scarf.

The small man only giggled with interest, looking at the police car in the distance.

"Worry not, Ignatios", he replied, his tone akin to a gentle old man. The suit he wore was, surprisingly, completely dry, considering the heavy rain falling from the sky. "We will not be here for long. It seems that I have found what we came for."

Ignatios, a taller man wearing a patterned coconut hat, a blue suit and a blue and yellow scarf around his neck, glanced at his master with his yellow eyes, curiosity hidden behind his expressionless face.

"It is truly him, then?", he questioned, placing a hand on his chin. He resisted the urge to chew his nails, an habit that seemed to have accompanied him all his life, even if its origin was a mystery.

"Why, yes", the smaller man with an enormous disproportionate nose nodded, maintaining his ever present smile. "We have found the one who shall tip the balance of this game, Ignatios."

The master made a gesture in the air, the sound of cogs and gears filling the air around them as they disappeared from this world.

"We have found a _trickster."_

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**A/N: **A while back, I started a Persona 5/JJBA crossover story called 'Crimsom Crusaders', which ran for 5 or 6 chapters. Due to reasons beyond my control, that story no longer exists. This is a **reboot **of that story, so don't be confused by the description.


	2. Rude Awakening

**Chapter 1:**

**Rude Awakening**

* * *

As the wagon stirred in its tracks, Akira was brought off his uncomfortable sleep by a sharp headache that lasted several seconds, making him remove the earpieces blaring with music from his ear and place a hand on his forehead in an attempt to sooth the pain. It didn't work.

He sighed as he looked at his surroundings, the train car packed with salaryman, high school students and all sorts of people chatting, sleeping or on their phones. To his right, a tall man rested his head against the window and seemed to be having a grand old nap, something that made Akira jealous: it had been weeks since he had had a proper night of sleep. The fear and the anxiety were to thank for that, and for the bags under his eyes and his general mood as well. It had been rough. He considered checking his phone for the tenth time that day, but decided it was pointless: he had deleted most of his social media accounts in anger, not wanting to be bombarded by accusations and moral lessons from former friends, colleagues, teachers and assholes in general. The unfairness of it all made him shake in fury, but he quickly subdued his feelings.

Keep quiet, keep your head down and don't cause trouble.

"_Your heard about that mental shutdown thing? They said it's a curse or something!"_, some schoolgirl commented, loud enough so Akira could listen.

"_Yeah, scary, if you believe in that stuff."_

"_You mean you don't?"_

"_Of course not! You just believe in this occult stuff too easy!"_

They laughed at that, Akira quickly losing interest in the conversation. Rumours never did anyone any good.

After a while, the train began to stop, a robotic voice announcing its arrival at Shibuya station, Akira's destination. He hugged his pack and brought his legs together, trying to make space for the crowd that was now leaving the wagon and bumping into each other carelessly. Akira waited patiently, rising from his seat when he found an opportunity to squeeze himself out of the wagon. Before he could do that, some fat guy bumped into him, making him fall back to his seat once again with a thud and a groan. His glasses slipped from his head, bouncing on his lap, falling to the ground and being summarily squashed by some salaryman's foot before Akira could even try to grab it.

He sat there for long seconds, staring at the broken object on the ground, before picking it up and holding the fragments in front of him. He tightened his grips, nails and glass cutting the palms of his hands, his teeth gritted as he fought to keep himself calm. He did not actually _needed _the glasses: it was simply an idea he had, an accessory to make him look less menacing and more fragile as a way to dispel the rumors he _knew_ were coming. And right now, the whole idea was about to go down, as Akira felt the sudden urge to scream, destroy, hurt and causa as much pain as possible to all those who turned their backs on him.

Fuck his parents. Fuck Souji. Fuck Takeda. Fuck Aiko. Fuck the unjust police. _Fuck them._

Before Akira could release any of the anger that dwelled inside him, the man that slept on the seat next to him woke up with a loud yawn, distracting the boy.

"_Crap_", he moaned, cracking his neck a rubbing his eyes. "Shouldn't have slept on the bench, now i'm all stiff."

Akira blinked, turning his head sideways to look at the man who now stretched himself. He was tall, he could tell even when the man was sitting, and had handsome facial features complemented by a head of purple-ish hair, styled in a pompadour with sidecuts, a haircut quite popular nowadays, along with a single earring on his right lobe, which gave him something of a jovial look. Wearing purple social pants and a white shirt, the man exuded an aura of laidbackness, evident when he turned to Akira and nonchalantly started to talk with the boy:

"Hey kid, what time is it?"

Akira blinked again, his anger slowly fading out. For a second, he looked down at his hands: now bloody and hurting from the glass. The man followed his gaze and his eyes widened in surprise.

"What the… you okay, kid?", the man questioned, leaning on his direction to take a better look while the crowd still moved besides them.

Akira didn't answer, now thinking about how stupid he was to let his emotions do this to him. The pain started to increase, making him suck his breath and try to stop the drops of blood from falling on the wagon's floor. He turned to the man, nodding his head in dismissal.

"I-I'm good, thank you", he answered, not wanting to involve some stranger in his own affairs. "It was just an accident, I can take care of it myself."

"Yeah, not really", the man snorted. "You seemed really pissed back there. Better not cause trouble or anything like that, or I'll have to arrest ya."

Akira froze upon hearing his words, bad memories coming to the forefront of his mind as if in a flash.

_"You're getting arrested, you little thug!"_, a voice screamed from his mind, making him shudder.

"Wow, I'm just kidding, relax!", the man waved his hands and smiled apologetically. "Just take care of yourself better, that's all. I don't think I even have the authority to arrest someone in Tokyo."

Akira just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible, the man's attitude starting to get at his nerves. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to squeeze himself through the crowd yet, so instead he satiated his curiosity.

"You a cop?", he asked, trying to sound natural. Okay, after that old lady passes, I jump off too. _Ack_, why was he thinking like an actual criminal?

"Detective, actually. Aaaand this is totally my stop, and I'm late", he added, to Akira's relief. The man stood up, smiling at the boy and pointed at his bleeding hands. "You should take care of that, man. Blood's supposed to stay inside, you kn-"

Suddenly, he raised his head to the left, an expression of surprise in his face. "Hey, is that _Risette?"_

Akira dumbly followed the direction he looked, seeing no sign of any idols or pop singer, just a regular crowd of people.

"See you around, kid", the man said with a laugh, already walking off before Akira could even turn and say goodbye. He sat there for a few seconds, thinking about the strange conversation he just had. Was every cop, er, _detective _like that? Back in his hometown, they all seemed the same: surly, serious and, most of all, a bunch of pricks. He sighed, standing up and readying himself to finally leave the train and make his way towards Sojiro Sakura's house, the place where he would life for the next year. But first, he should go to the bathroom and take a look at-

When he opened his hands to look at the damage, he blinked twice: there was not blood. Not cuts. Nothing. On his right palm laid an perfectly normal and intact pair of glasses, as if they were never broken at all. He stood there, his mouth agape, trying to understand _what had just happened_.

"What the…"

"_**The doors will close soon. Please vacate the wagon."**_

"..._fuck", _he cursed, picking up his pace and leaving the train. He could think about it later.

* * *

"I'm sure you realize that at any sign of misconduct, you will be expelled, correct?", questioned Principal Kobayakawa after finishing his explanation, adjusting his tie and keeping it from merging with his abnormally fat chin.

"Yes, of course", Akira simply replied, making Sojiro Sakura sigh besides him.

Finding his new guardian's house was simple enough, but Akira didn't expect the catch: he wouldn't be living in his house _per se_, but instead at his small, retro-decorated coffee shop just on the end of the street. The man, pushing his forties, was tall and lean, with some sort of suave ladies man aura to him, smoking a cigarette and leisurely watching the news when he first arrived at the place. His treatment of Akira was simple, though: don't try any funny stuff, keep your head down, and if anything was missing at the shop, he would be sent straight to juvie. Akira didn't expect less, but it still bothered him that he would be treated like that by basically everyone.

"_So, basically, you tried to help some lady and got the short stick for it. That's what you get for prying in people's business"_, he had remarked. Akira couldn't help but agree, even if deep inside he considered that philosophy to be deeply disgusting. His own experience with it made sure of that.

"Geez, why did it have to be me…", another voice chimed in, this time coming from a woman standing beside the principal, fidgeting with her arm and looking completely uncomfortable. Sadayo Kawakami, he heard her being called.

She had a short stature, wearing an yellow blouse and a jeans skirt which she adjusted from time to time, adding to her awkwardness at being there. Her brown hair was in disarray, falling to the sides of her head in locks, while her dark eyes had bags under then, a sign of lack of sleep and stress. Akira could only wonder what was the cause.

She was cute, though. Wait, stop thinking that.

"Forgive me, Ms. Kawakami" , the principal adopted an apologetical tone, waving his hand. "All the other teachers had full classes, yours was the only one with vacant seats. Truly, we did not expect to receive a transfer by this point of the year", he added, shaking his head and clacking his tongue, as if in disbelief of such rudeness from Akira: how dare he be expelled and transferred to Shujin Academy?

The woman sighed, crossing her arms at the argument. "Wouldn't a male teacher be more appropriate? I'm not saying I'm not capable, but considering… y'know?"

Akira's criminal streak, murder rate, arson tendency or whatever was pinned on his back? Honestly, if his situation wasn't as dire as it was, he would feel flattered at how dangerous people thought he was.

Kobayakawa and Kawakami kept discussing the details about his transfer, making Akira and Sojiro wait for a couple of minutes just standing there. Sojiro, whose patience Akira found out was short, cleaned his throat and adjusted his hat.

"If you don't mind, may we wrap this up? I've got a Coffee Shop to run, after all", he spoke up, bringing their attention to him. "I'm sure you can pass the rest of the details to him tomorrow."

"_Ah_, of course, Sakura-san. You two may leave now", the Principal smiled, a view Akira was sure he didn't want to see ever again. "I trust you to keep this boy in line. If he falls out of it, the consequences for him will be disastrous."

"Tell me about it", Sojiro replied dismissively.

The Principal continued. "Kawakami-sensei will be guiding you tomorrow, so you better show up as early as you can", he explained, to which Kawakami rolled her eyes. "That will be all."

Sojiro simply waved his hand in a sloppy 'goodbye', before making his way out with Akira following him. They walked the corridors of the unsurprisingly large school building (it was Tokyo, after all), with Akira taking notice of the many glass showcases with trophies inside, most of them related to volleyball, track and gymnastics. He searched for any sign of baseball teams on the school, before the memory soured his mood. Not even his sport colleagues spared him back home.

"School never changes, eh?", Sojiro suddenly commented, scratching his goatee. "Never did like it, to be honest. Even so, anyone who gives up on it is a pushover to the country. You should remember that."

Akira nodded tiredly. He was more than aware of his situation, even more so with people reminding him every five seconds. Even so, up until this point, the older man had made little to no attempt to make small talk with him, simply grumbling or complaining about the whole situation. Akira decided to bite this opportunity to make things less antagonistic between them.

"Why didn't you like scholl?", he tried.

Sojiro snorted. "What a dumb question. Back then, school was way more strict. Nowadays, you can carry your phone around, dress how you want, basically do anything. You young ones have it easy", he explained, sounding even older than he actually was. "Besides, there were some incidents back in my time. My school almost got closed."

"What happened?"

Sojiro hummed, trying to remember some detail or another. "Some transfer student disappeared not a week after arriving. The school in uproar, parents taking their kids away and stuff like that", he explained, stepping down the stairs to the first floor. "There was a whole investigation going, but it lead to nothing. Never found out what happened."

Akira nodded, wondering if being a transfer student brought bad luck. "That sucks", he dumbly replied, making Sojiro sigh in annoyance.

"Why did I even tell you that? Come on, let's go already."

Exiting the school, they quickly made their way towards Sojiro's car, a vintage model which matched it's owner way too perfectly. They entered the vehicle, Sojiro turning on the engines and switching the radio on.

"_**No news on the cause of the sudden mental breakdowns that have been happening constantly this year. Authorities believe that…"**_

"_Ugh_, can't things be normal for a single day?", Sojiro grumbled under his breath, while Akira kept quietly looking through the window.

Up until now, it had all felt like some dream: something he would simply wake up and never think about again. He would have his friends back, he would keep living in his hometown, he would start to date Aiko and everything would be normal. But the reality of it all began to set in as soon as he met Sojiro and came to the school, being the recipient of distrust, prejudice and scrutiny. That day, he knew that his entire year would be filled with that feeling, that anger deep inside, that need to tell people that they were _wrong_, that he didn't do anything. That the true culprit was that man, that…

_Monster._

Akira took a deep breath, the memory of that hallucination peeking through the corner of his mind. _It wasn't real_, he reminded himself. Nothing like that could exist, you were under stress. That's it.

"Hey, you okay?", asked Sojiro besides him. "I don't want you passing out in my car."

Akira simply nodded, his nerves calming down. He would never say anything about gold monsters to anyone. He would accept his fate and keep his head down, and maybe, _maybe_, if he was lucky, his record would be cleaned after his probation.

_Nothing out of the ordinary will happen_, he promised, returning to look through the window as the car left the school grounds. He took notice of a cat, a black and white cat roaming around the place near the school's gate, and wondered if the school had some sort of pet. Maybe he could help taking care of it, raise his reputation around and let people see he was just a normal kid studying at a normal school.

What was _not _normal was the tiny piece of metal shaped like an arrow the cat had curled on his tail, its grip tightened as if he was holding a precious item. Akira blinked and rubbed his eyes, as if they were playing tricks on him.

The cat then turned, _looked at him_, and sprinted off, disappearing on some bushes still carrying the object with its tail, leaving Akira with his mouth open in disbelief.

Akira decided he should seek help. Psychological help.

* * *

Josuke Higashikata had a complicated life.

To anyone around him, it was something far from obvious: he had settled down as a police officer after graduating, following the footsteps of his late grandfather, and after almost a decade in the force, had been promoted to detective. Such job in a quiet town like Morioh would certainly lead to a boring and uneventful life, far from the romantic notion of detectives from fiction. Other than a series of disappearances a few years back, the town was nothing more than a footnote on Japan's maps, a place hardly worth remembering.

And, as Josuke had known for almost two decades, anyone who said such things was completely wrong. Not only the town had the appearance of new strange people with bizarre abilities almost on a monthly basis, but the carefree detective was also the bastard son of one of the biggest moguls in the USA, amassing a fortune of billions and having close ties with the Speedwagon Foundation, another multinational conglomerate. Instead of enjoying a lofty life as an heir, he dedicated himself to a duty to his town and his friends, something he intended to uphold even to the point of refusing to receive his part of the inheritance of the late Joseph Joestar, same as his half-sister. A part of the money would instead be directed to the education of Shizuka Joestar in america, with the rest to be send to charity and other investments to the more discreet sectors of the Speedwagon Foundation. Life was _far _from simple for Josuke Higashikata, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

Except, of course, when his nephew called. At those moments, he wished for some well deserved peace.

Jotaro Kujo had put it bluntly: something strange is happening in Tokyo, something the public was calling 'mental shutdowns'. As none of them were dumb, the obvious answer was some sort of Stand ability of moderate to high level of danger, a matter that should be swiftly resolved if Jotaro was in the case. The man had spent decades dealing with Stand users all over the world (to the detriment of his relationship with his daughter, but that was another matter), so that would be a piece of cake, easy peasy.

"_Actually, Josuke, I'm calling you for this exact reason. I want __**you**__ to go",_ the man had said, and Josuke skipped a beat.

The fact was that Jotaro was dealing with some situation in Naples that would take a few months to resolve, so he instead turned to his most trusted and capable ally: his uncle. Josuke had thrown in a few arguments, ranging from lack of experience to a broken pinky toe, but ultimately, if Dr. Jotaro Kujo asked you to do something, you do it.

The thing that irked Josuke was the fact that some strings had needed to be pulled. His own record as a detective was impeccable, of course, but he was no bigshot or had any notoriety outside of a few prefectures. He couldn't simply jump to Tokyo unannounced, hop at the Prosecutor's Office and say 'okay, I'm in charge now': he had the help of the Foundation's contacts, the kind of help that his Joestar side had counted on for a century, if his old man was to be believed. In most occasions, Stand Incidents could be dealt quietly, with little to no involvement with the police, but this case had been on the news for months, so the Foundation couldn't simply solve it themselves: they had to involve the Investigation Team.

And so, Detective Josuke Higashikata stood in front of the SIU Director's office, dressed in his best dark suit, his best pants and polished shoes, and swallowed dry. As he rose the floors of the building, many officers and prosecutors had stared at him from a distance, noticing two things:

One, that the heir of the Joestar empire was here by pure nepotism and probably just wanted the glory of being a part of the mental shutdowns, one of the toughest cases to crack in the SIU history.

And two, that he was wearing a purple suit with golden details.

Okay, the second part he was used to, but the first one was something that kept nagging him over and over. He had refused the inheritance for a reason: he wanted to make big by his own merits, not because he was the son of someone important. As much as Joseph and Josuke had been close in the years between their first meeting and his eventual death, he would never take the place of his grandfather, who server with pride and honor as a cop, defending their hometown from danger and dying because of it. This time, he had to prove himself not only to Jotaro, but to the entire Investigation Unit.

"_Hm. I wonder if Crazy Diamond would be considered cheating"_, he snickered mentally, before knocking on the door.

* * *

From the moment Josuke met Director Musashi, he took a disliking to the man.

"I'm sure you will feel very welcome here in Tokyo, Detective Higashikata", the old man spoke with a friendly tone, masking his own snob attitude. "Your addition to the investigation team came as a surprise, but your reputation precedes you. You were the one who conducted the investigation on the Sendai Murder cases, right?"

Josuke stood in front of his desk, hands on the side of his body in a formal pose, reminiscent of his street cop days. He cleared his throat. "Yes, sir, that would be me", he replied. While the case had been a challenge to investigate, with many false leads, in the end it had been simply a fight between two Stand User gangs, of which one had a user capable of melting enemies depending on the temperature of the room. Scary stuff, but a smart use of the thermostat had won him the fight in minutes.

"Indeed, quite the efficient investigation", the man lied. He didn't gave a shit about some small case in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least, that had been the description he had been given by the Foundation. He had been warned that in the SIU, you're on your own: everybody there wanted to step on each other's heads on the way to the top. "Don't you think, Niijima-san?"

"I've read the files. Some sloppy reports here and there, but overall an efficient job. Nothing to write home about", commented the woman, standing a few meters from him.

While he had previous knowledge about the Director, he had basically nothing on the current leader of the Mental Shutdown Investigation Team: Prosecutor Sae Niijima. The young, slender ashen haired woman had her arms crossed, analyzing Josuke with scrutiny in her brown eyes, like she was looking at some rat that was chewing on her shoes. Dressed in a form fitting grey suit, she seemed completely on her element, different from Josuke, who was still getting used to the formality and ways of the big city.

"Honestly, Detective Higashikata, I failed to see the reason you were even called here", she bluntly stated. "Is there… _anything _you could even add to the case?"

_Ah_, he knew what she was doing. A simple jab to undermine the concurrency.

"As a matter of fact, Niijima-san, I do", he adjusted his tie and his hair, preparing his discourse. "I've been involved in many investigations with elements such as the mental shutdown cases. These kinds of things are usually caused by problems not only on the perpetrators, but the society and community around them. Of course, Tokyo is a big city, but with the help of your professionals, we can narrow down the cause of these phenomenons to precision", he explained. "A single person in unpredictable, but a group of people? The complete opposite. Be it mental stress, some new drug or anything like that, I'm sure I'll be of immense help."

The director hummed and raised his brows, seemingly approvingly. "Yes, I see your point, Detective Higashikata. I found myself agreeing with your opinions. What do you think, Niijima-san?"

The woman placed a hand on her chin, analysing Josuke's perspective, but was unable to find any answer that would help her case. "Can't say I agree or disagree. I'll leave it to your discretion, Director."

Josuke smiled internally, mostly because his bullshit arguments were so convincing. He admittedly had excellent investigation skills, specially with the help of Crazy Diamond, but psychology was far from his field of study. Obviously, he couldn't tell the director that the weird ghost behind some weirdo somewhere in town was the cause of it all.

"Very well then! I'm sure Niijima-san will explain all the details to you, Detective Higashikata", the director rose from the seat while Niijima simply sighed. "Welcome to the investigation team, properly this time!"

Josuke swiftly bowed his head. "Please take care of me, sir", he politely replied. Of course, his transfer to the Team had already been approved, so he would be a part of it whether they wanted or not. But starting with the right food had saved his skin many times before, so he figured it couldn't hurt.

"Would you like to join in for a drink, then?", the Director asked, smiling disarmingly. "What about you, Niijima-san?"

"I'm busy, sorry. I have to look over some files from the case", the woman dryly replied. "And if Higashikata wishes to catch up, I suggest he follows me", she added, passing by Josuke while staring at him with cold eyes, her ashen hair flowing backwards as she almost bumped with his shoulder. Her expensive perfume almost made Josuke cough, but he avoided it by clearing his throat.

"Uh, well", he started, not sure how to follow that. "I think I'll be going now, sir."

"Of course, of course", he replied, and Josuke turned around and made his way to the door, following Sae.

"_Ah_, before I forget, Detective", he called as Josuke grabbed the handle of the door, making him turn his head. "We have a dressing code here. Please abide to it", said the Director, pointing at the many golden details and patterns on his suit, along with the continuous flux of _'JoJoJoJo' _sewed on the corners of the cloth.

"Ah, of course sir, I apologize. I'll take care of that immediately!", he happily replied, smiling as if he was an intern on his first day of the job. He left the room, and closed the door, before scoffing.

"What a prick."

* * *

** To be Continued =**

* * *

**A/N: **And here I am, back to writing this, a fic I started and then this thing called 2020 fell in my head and knocked me unconscious. For now, have the introduction of a few characters and, well, our good boi (now a 33 year old detective by the point of this story). I'll have fun writing this, so I hope you'll have too.


	3. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Chapter 2: **

**Down the Rabbit Hole**

* * *

As the boy ran through the streets for cover, Akira couldn't help but curse himself for not checking the weather beforehand.

The rain had soaked his uniform and hair, making his first day at school already unpleasant even before he arrived at the place properly. All around him, students wearing the dark Shujin uniform could be seen walking and talking, most of them carrying umbrellas or rain capes to protect themselves from the, while not heavy, extremely annoying water from the skies. It hadn't been hard to memorize the trainline he had to take, the only issue being the packed cars and huge lines ate every step of the way, something that was apparently commonplace in Tokyo, the beating heart of Japan. How could people get used to it, he wondered.

Finally, he took cover in front of some fashion store, trying to dry himself at the best of his capability, which was not much considering his clothes were already too wet and humid for him to even pretend he hadn't took the rain face first. He gave up after half a minute, simply leaning on the wall and sighing, quietly waiting for the rain to subside. There was still some time, after all.

While he watched people walking on the streets, he wondered how things would be at Shujin: the prospect of changing schools was never attractive to him, even before being slapped with a criminal record. It was change of pace, of friendships, of routine, of everything, no to mention his newfound hesitation to interact with colleagues. He had no way of knowing whether people knew about his probation, but figured that such thing were naturally interesting gossips: the criminal transfer student, coming to shook our good and peaceful school.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, already dreading the whole thing. His plan, as always, was to keep quiet and keep his head down, even at the cost of his already hurt pride. He could not, in any form or capacity, cause or be involved in trouble, no matter how small it was. _Any _sign of trouble would warrant his expulsion and a stay at Juvenile Rehabilitation, a fate worse than death in his opinion.

Keep quiet and keep your head down.

Keep quiet and keep your head down.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what time it is?"

Keep quiet and-

"Huh?", Akira mumbled, raising his head in confusion.

In front of him, stood a tall man with piercing yellow eyes that made Akira quietly gasp and recoil for a second. Wearing a blue suit and an equally blue patterned coconut hat above his silver hair, the man adjusted the scarf around his neck with one hand, while the other casually held an umbrella, protecting its owner and the probably expensive clothing from the rain.

"I asked you the time", the man bluntly repeated in his deep voice, staring at him intently.

For a moment, Akira had lost all words: the man's appearance was too uncanny for even Tokyo's standards, if the internet was to be believed, but it was the way the man looked at him that made Akira hesitant. Was he some weirdo? Some crazy guy? Was he in danger? While he was no weakling, the man's stature was all that he needed to see to be sure he would not win a fight there.

"U-Uh", Akira started, fumbling his pocket for his phone. "It's 7… 7:13."

The man showed no reaction, continuing to simply glare at him as if there was something either very interesting or very despicable on Akira's face. The boy started to get nervous, not too thrilled about being stopped by some freak on his first day of school.

"Sir?", he asked after a few seconds, time in which the man didn't even move a muscle. The stranger leaned his head sideways, squinting his eyes.

"Do you feel it?", the stranger asked, making Akira lift a brow in confusion.

"What?"

"Change is coming. Or rather, an spectacle so bombastic that the entire world will feel its consequences", he answered, placing a hand on his pocket. Akira tensed at that move, readying himself to sprint in case he tried anything. "I wonder if you'll be leading it… or drowning on the mud of ignorance."

What the fuck was he talking about? Akira breathed, calming himself before slowly trying to reason with the lunatic.

"Sir… I don't know what you want, if it is money or anything like that, but…", he started. _But what?_, he questioned himself mentally. "... if you continue to bother me, I'll have to call the police."

The man once again showed no reaction for some time, before slowly taking his hand off his pocket once again. Akira braced himself for a knife or a gun or anything, but the thing the stranger held was something entirely different.

A blue butterfly, casually perched on the man's finger and slowly flapping its wings. Akira's eyes widened in surprise, something that the man took notice.

"I assumed that an awakening would be necessary, but it seems you already have what it takes", he once again spoke in riddles. "Perhaps just a little push will suffice."

With a gentle movement of his finger, the stranger made the butterfly move and fly around in the air before landing on Akira's phone, which he now noticed he still held in his hands.

Before he could say anything, the butterfly _glowed._

"Well then…_let's start the game_", he heard the stranger say quietly. Akira gasped and blinked, raising his head to face the stranger once again. His tricks were quite impressive, and whatever nonsense he was spouting surely made sense inside his head, but he _really needed to-_

But the stranger, along with the butterfly, was already gone.

"Hey, are you okay?", another voice came from beside him, different from the one before.

Akira blinked in confusion at the disappearance of the stranger, looking around him for any clue of his whereabouts before noticing the person that had asked him a question. And when he did, he had to control his own jaw so it didn't drop.

The girl's blonde hair was the first thing he noticed: the color of sand, lazily reflecting the daylight and tied in two ponytails, one on each side of her head. Her face seemed to be, for a lack of a better expression, sculpted to perfection, with a small nose and pink lips open, her green eyes showing some concern over Akira, for some reason or another.

"What?", he asked, now stunned not only by the bizarre man that talked to him earlier, but the beauty that stood there talking to him.

"Oh, sorry", she apologized, waving a hand dismissively. "You seemed like you weren't well, so I got worried. You were spacing out, looking at nowhere, so I thought something had happened."

Akira raised a brow at her words: spacing out? Wasn't he talking to that stranger just a few seconds ago? And when did that girl get there? He didn't notice her arrival before.

"What the…", he paused, deciding to not talk about it. Was the man just an hallucination? He seemed like it: the bizarre get up, his weird yellow eyes and that strange blue butterfly all looked like something straight from a dream. "I-I'm okay, thank you."

The blonde smiled and tightened the grip on her bag, making Akira look down and notice she was wearing the same Shujin uniform as him. Well, 'the same' was not exactly true: while the boy did his best to wear his uniform prim and proper, as a normal and uneventful student would, the girl wore a white sports jacket above hers along with red stockings covering her legs, something he didn't see any other female student on the street wear. She seemed to have some fashion sense, apparently.

He quickly got his bearings back, turning his gaze away from the girl: he didn't want to creep her out with his stare. His mind raced for a few seconds, thinking about the strange events that seemed to be happening around him on the last few days: the lack of cuts on his hands, where he gripped broken glasses with all the strength of his grip; the strange cat carrying something with its tail as if it was entirely natural; the weirdo that just spoke cryptic things and disappeared suddenly. All these things made him consider that he was losing his mind: maybe the events of the last month had messed him in the head? It wasn't a far fetched idea. The stress and frustration had brought him on the brink of rage more times than he could count. He began considering if he hadn't gone mad.

But then again, if he was questioning his own mental faculties, didn't that mean he was still sane?

Suddenly, a car pulled over, interrupting his train of thoughts. The window was rolled down, revealing a large muscular man on the driver's seat, his curly hair coming down on the sides of his head and his chin larger than anyone's Akira had seen in his life. The man smiled, not at him, but at the blonde girl besides him.

"Hey, Takamaki-chan!", he called in a overtly casual tone. "It's raining pretty hard, would you like a ride?"

In the corner of his eye, he saw the blonde flinch. He raised a brow not only at that, but the whole situation: did she knew this man? Or it was just another weirdo? To his surprise, her reaction was simply to smile forcefully and nod her head, walking towards the car's door. After she sat down, the man turned to him, still smiling.

"What about you?", he asked.

Before Akira could even formulate a response, the look on the man's eyes spelled everything to him: _"fuck off"_. Even if he was smiling, his glare was a simple and effective warning, his eyes glinting in an unspoken threat. Akira stood silent for a moment, before forcing himself to smile and wave, denying the ride.

"_Suit yourself"_, the man kept smiling while he rolled up the window and started the car, driving away and leaving Akira alone. The last thing he saw was the girl's downcast face, before the car disappeared from his sight.

Akira didn't have time to ponder about the situation before hearing loud footsteps approaching him, making the boy turn to his side to see the source of the noise: another Shujin student was running at all speed in his direction, huffing and sweating as he passed by Akira e came to an abrupt stop.

He growled and kicked the ground in frustration, scratching his head. "_Shit_, they got away. Screw that pervy teacher!"

"Pervy… teacher?", Akira repeated, confused.

His phone rumbled suddenly, making the boy look down to check it. To his surprise, a strange app icon appeared out of nowhere: it was blue, with an stylized _V _as its symbol, the icon itself vibrating within the phone's screen. Akira raised a brow, but before he could react, the other student suddenly approached him with an angry posture.

"Who the hell are you?", he demanded, leaning on Akira with a scowl. "You gonna rat me out to Kamoshida?"

The phone vibrated again, but Akira didn't notice: he was distracted by the stranger's abrasive attitude towards him, seemingly out of nowhere. The other boy had his hair dyed blonde, even more yellow than the girl who entered the car previously, and wore an outfit more appropriate to a delinquent than a student: his uniform was open and crumpled, showing a red shirt with '_no mo rulez' _written in a stylized way. His suspender hanged besides his Shujin pants, with his hands inside his pockets as he eyed Akira with scrutiny.

Akira, taken aback for a second, simply blurted a question. "Kamoshida?"

"Yeah, Kamoshida! Who do you think that was?", the blond barked, before his expression became one of confusion. "Wait, you don't know Kamoshida? You're Shujin, right? How the hell you don't know him?"

"Uh, i just got here. I'm a transfer student", Akira explained, now a bit annoyed by the blond's jump to conclusions. "I have no idea who this Kamoshida is."

The other boy blinked for a second, before scratching the back of his head embarrassed. "Oh shit, sorry about that. I thought you were going to snitch on me", he apologized, returning his scowl. "But some advice: stay away from Kamoshida. That creep is nothing but trouble!"

Akira nodded, still a bit confused. "R-Right, okay", he agreed, now considering the advice for real: the look on that guy's face wasn't very friendly, even with the wide smile he wore. He planned to keep his distance. "No need to tell me twice. He's got a weird vibe about him."

Akira winced internally after the words left his mouth. Don't say shit like that so carelessly! _Shut up and keep you he-_

"I know, right!", the blonde nodded vigorously, interrupting Akira's thoughts. "Even some new guy like you could tell! It's like its written on his face, '_i'm an asshole!'"_

Akira paused, a bit surprised. He had grown so accustomed to keep his opinions to himself that someone actually agreeing with him was something to take notice of. Of course, considering the apparent delinquent he was speaking to, he wasn't surprised that the other boy shared his view. It seemed that he and that teacher had some history.

"Oh _shit!_", he suddenly cursed, looking at his phone. "It's almost First Period! We gotta go!"

Akira cursed internally after checking his own phone and confirming it: if he didn't run, he would be late. But the other thing that caught his attention was the weird app from before: it was now pulsating even harder, like it was loading something. Akira quickly swept the app towards the trash bin, deleting it. Fucking malwares. He should clean his phone some time.

"Come on, I know a shortcut", the blond called him, pointing at some alley not far from where they stood. Akira considered his options for a few seconds, before coming to the conclusion that he didn't have a choice: being late for school would be the death of him, after all.

As they made their way towards the school, Akira pondered about the blond in front of him, wondering what kind of person he was. He didn't react in any negative way after finding out he was a transfer student, on the contrary: he seemed relieved. Could that mean that his reputation hadn't reached the school? Akira could only hope. Other than that, he seemed like an OK guy, contrasting with his obviously abrasive attitude. Akira wondered of he should make any friends at Shujin, but never had placed much thought on it: who knew how they would treat them there?

But his social nature got the better of him, making Akira speed up and walk alongside the other boy.

"I'm sorry, i didn't introduce myself", he said, a bit too politely. "I'm Akira Kurusu, second year."

The blond was taken by surprise, apparently not used to people talking to him like that. Was it because of his politeness, or because not many people even spoke with him? His attitude usually drove people back, by Akira's experience.

"Oh, damn, you're right", he snickered. "Name's Ryuji Sakamoto, second year too. You just got here, right? What class you in?"

They entered the alley, making their way across trash cans and one or two puddles.

"Don't know yet", Akira answered, getting more comfortable with the conversation. "My homeroom teacher is… well, a woman with short brown hair? Kinda small?", he gesture towards his chest, where he deducted the woman's height reached.

"Oohh, that's Kawakami, so you're in 2-D", he explained, before scrunching his face. "Man, good luck. I hear she's been on a bad mood lately."

Akira nodded, remembering the woman's distaste towards him when they met, and apparently to everything around her. Just his luck: couldn't he be on a class with a less sour teacher?

The dark haired boy let curiosity get the better of him after a few moments, remembering what happened before.

"What about that Kamoshida guy? Is he a teacher too?", he asked, making the Ryuji scoff.

"Yeah, he teaches P.E., along with coaching the Volleyball team", he explained. "I meant what I said, though: stay away from him. He's gonna make you life hell."

'_Great'_, thought Akira. Every teacher in the school seemed to be terrible in some degree, but that was usually the norm instead of the exception. Every school had a favorite teacher, after all: he wondered who was Shujin's.

"Is he as bad as it sounds?", he questioned the blond. "You called him… what was it again?"

"A _fucking pervert_", Ryuji didn't miss a beat, venom on his words. "I see how he looks at the girls, but nobody does a damn thing: he's an Olympic Champion, get it? 'Suguru Kamoshida, Pride of Shujin Academy' and all that shit. Besides, the volleyball team is always… bruised, beaten. His training is _fucked up_."

Akira raised a brow, now even less eager to enter school. "What? And nobody does a thing?"

" 'course not. They just kiss his ass and let him do whatever he wants", he spoke with anger, rubbing his leg for a second. "It's like he's a king in a castle or some shit like that. Treats students like his slaves."

Akira's phone rumbled, making him slide it off his pocket and take a look at the screen. His eyes widened and he let out a gasp.

"Hey, we're finally there!", said Ryuji, pointing forwards. "Just by the end of the alley. Come on, we're screwed if someone catches us being so late!"

Akira stopped on his tracks, not even listening to Ryuji's words, too busy staring at his phone's screen: the blue app was there again, this time open. The logo was splattered on the screen, a cursive _V _as a pattern behind three text boxes. While strange in itself, it was the content of the boxes that startled Akira.

_Shujin Academy._

_Castle._

_Suguru Kamoshida._

Was… was that app _listening _their conversation? Was it some of those spy softwares he had heard in passing about? What the hell was wrong with his phone?

Ryuji noticed his delay, turning back to face Akira with a brow raised. "Hey, you coming or not? We're gonna be late!"

A second after hearing these words, Akira's finger brushed on the phone's touchscreen by accident, making the object vibrate and a robotic voice to come out of it.

"_Shujin Academy. Castle. Suguru Kamoshida"_, the voice listed, making Akira flinch. "_Beginning navigation. Thank you for using__『__**Velvet Underground**__**』**__**."**_

"What the-", Akira heard Ryuji begin to ask, before everything around them started to warp and change, distortion spreading on the ground, walls and even the air around them with a sickly red and purple color.

They disappeared from the alley, an unheard scream on their throats.

* * *

"... is she hot?"

Josuke clicked his tongue in annoyance, adjusting the phone on his ear.

"_Godammit_, Okuyasu, what does that have to do with anything?", he questioned his longtime friend, who seemed to be munching some well deserved lunch on the other side of the line. If it was Tonio's, he would kill Okayasu.

After a few seconds, Superintendent Okuyasu Nijimura finished chewing his food, releasing a moderately loud burp. He returned to the call.

"Well, I mean, you said she practically wanted to kick you out of the building judging by the way she looks and talks to you", said Okuyasu, snickering. "So I figured: _'well, my bro is gonna have a field day'_."

"That's some shitty logic, man. What does that even mean?"

"_Oh, _don't even try to lie to me, you dog!", Okuyasu barked. "_I know you like it! _Remember Rina? From last summer?"

"Okuyasu, she was _clinically insane._"

"Uh, _yeah,_ but you were still chasing after her like a puppy! I know you more than you know yourself, bro. Just ask Koichi."

"S-Shuddup!", Josuke pleaded, exasperated. He cleared his throat. "_Anyway, _did Jotaro-san call?", he asked, desperate to change the subject.

Okuyasu resumed his lunch, judging by the sounds he was making. "_Nobe, _not a word. He did say he would be gone for a while, right? Something about that Giovanna fella? Did he say anything to you?"

"Nah, he just said it was Foundation business. Some shady stuff, by the looks of it", Josuke sighed. If Jotaro were here, things would be _so much _easier.

"Speaking of shady", Okuyasu snickered again, his voice now closer to the receiver. "You went to any red light district yet? Had any fun?"

"_Okay, _that's it. Bye, Okuyasu!", he groaned in frustration, his finger going straight for the 'end call' button.

"_Oioioioi, Josuke! _Wait! You forgot something!", Okuyasu pleaded on the other side, making Josuke raise a brow.

"What?"

There was silence for a few seconds, before Josuke began to _feel _the shit eating grin on Okuyasu's face.

"Is she hot or not?"

"Okuyasu, I _swear to god, _I-"

"Detective Higashikata", a stern voice called him from the door of his office, making Josuke quickly turn. Lo and behold, Sae Niijima stood there, arms crossed and a serious expression on her face.

"_Ohh, so she __**is **__hot, I can tell by her vo-"_

Josuke quickly ended the call, placing his phone on his desk and smiling towards Niijima.

"How can I help you, Niijima-san?"

The woman raised a brow, before shaking her head with a sigh. "Follow me. I need to introduce you to someone", she simply stated, before turning to look at Josuke's computer screen. "I assume you've read the files I sent you?"

"Of course", he answered, truthfully: he spent the entire night skimming through the dozens of cases registered on the last few months. Mental shutdowns, psychotic breakdowns, all sorts of freak accidents and tragedies caused by unknown means. "I even came up with a few conclusions", he added, rising from his seat and accompanying Sae, the two making their way through the corridors of the SIU.

"Really?", Sae questioned in a not-really-impressed tone. "Then by all means, speak your mind."

Josuke adjusted his tie, ready to be scrutinized once again, like all previous interactions with the ice cold Prosecutor.

"Well, most of the victims seemed to be in high ranking positions, like government officers, ministers or Zaibatsu members", he explained, ignoring the looks from the other officers who they passed along the corridor. "The last incident involved the Minister of Transport, even if the victim itself was the machinist. With that, we can assume there are no coincidences: whoever is behind it has a clear agenda. If common people were targeted, most would assume it to be simply the consequence of stress."

"That is obvious, Detective", Sae replied, not even looking at him. Both entered the elevator, with the woman pressing the Floor button. "It doesn't take a genius to make such connections. The question here is _who _and _why _they are doing this, and most importantly _how_. You simply stated _what _they are doing."

Josuke fidgeted on the spot, placing his hands on his pockets. "You have to admit this is like no case anyone in Japan has ever seen, Niijima-san. We don't have any evidence or trustworthy witnesses, so it's to be expected that this investigation would be in a slump."

"Yes, and apparently their solution was to send some country boy to help in the investigation", Sae replied with venom. "With the amount of fingers already messing it up, I only expect that you don't mess it up even more."

Josuke tried to ignore her icy words, staring at the floor's number. 24. _Fuck_, it would be a long ride.

"I'm trying to help, Niijima-san. This kind of issue cannot be solved by some small team, no matter how good they are at their jobs", Josuke argumented, trying to reason with her. "I know my methods are different from city detectives and prosecutors, but I think there's good in viewing the case in another light. Maybe more evidence will come up."

"_Oh, really?_", Sae suddenly turned to him, her glare cutting holes on him. "So tell me: what revolutionary method of investigation could _you_ bring to this case?"

'_My ghost friend can punch really hard'_, he considered answering, but instead simply cleared his throat.

"Field investigation. I have contacts with the ground police, I could serve as a better proxy between them and the Investigation Team", he explained, this time being honest: he had a few acquaintances on the Tokyo Force, with only a few of them being Foundation connections. Josuke was nothing if not social. "Gathering information from close relatives, witnesses where we can find them, whoever is connected to the cases even if by mere chance. I have experience from my days on the force."

She scoffed. "This is very different from arresting vagrants, Detective."

"_People have eyes and ears_, Prosecutor", he answered, now a bit annoyed by her cold demeanor. While he understood her behaviour, it was starting to test his patience. "And, as you know, people nowadays tend to distrust government officials and higher ups like yourself, no offense. I _know _how to talk with civilians, trust me: it was my job."

Sae scowled, definitely offended.

"This is not some rural town, Detective. We can't simply conquer their _hearts and minds_, or whatever it is that you intend: we need to search for evidence in a city with more than 9 million habitants", she argued, waving her right hand. "We _don't have time _to meticulously investigate every corner of every block where every person connected to the victims lives. We need _solid _evidence, not some wild goose chase."

"Isn't that what you've been doing until this point?", Josuke placed his hands on his hips, leaning on her direction with a scowl of his own. "Why are you so against a change of tactics?!"

"Simply because I don't trust your ability to even grasp the dimension of this case", Sae spat back, crossing her arms and standing in front of him, the two now entering a staring contest.

Josuke took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. No good would come off antagonizing the prosecutor, he knew that, but her behaviour made it very difficult.

Even so, he took the bait.

"And _why _is that, Prosecutor?"

She closed a bit of the distance between the two, allowing Josuke to see every detail of her brown iris' glaring at him with contempt.

"Because I simply _don't trust your skills, _'detective'. It's easy to reach high places when you have the right connections, right?", she spat, making Josuke freeze at her words. "Joestar might not be around anymore, but I assume he gave his son considerable help with his rising careers before he passed, am I wrong?"

She leaned back, scoffing. "I simply cannot trust the skills of someone like that. Someone unwilling to fight for his own place, unwilling to sacrifice anything for his own future", she said, before deciding to twist the knife even further. "You are simply the product of _other people's efforts._"

Something deep inside Sae stirred, trying to hold back her venomous words. It was entirely too cruel, after all: to mention his late father, to diminish his career entirely, to belittle his ability to do his job. Even so, she had her own reasons: he was not needed in the case. She was simply stating the truth, hoping he would back off.

She was entirely wrong.

Josuke held back for long seconds, his teeth gritting and his glare turning into a cold look which made Sae widen her eyes. He slowly closed the distance between them, leaning on her once again.

"Listen to me, _prosecutor_", he started, his voice devoid of any of the life it held before. "I don't know what kind of conclusions go off in your head to make you say something like that, but let me be clear on one thing: _you don't know me."_

"You can despise me, try to take me off the case, give me the cold shoulder, but never, _never _try to assume you know the things I have been through before. You think I'm some simple yokel on his first time in the big city? _Fine_, it's not far from the truth. You wanna tell me that just because my father was Joseph Joestar I'm a fruit of nepotism? Some golden bastard who suddenly saw himself with a yellow brick road towards his future? _Fine,_ think what you want."

"But you _never, ever, _say that I made no sacrifice. That I never lost anything, that _I never saw any friends die in front of me_. You wouldn't understand half the shit I had to do to be alive today, half the shit I had to do to _protect those I care about_."

He paused for a moment, watching Sae stand her ground with a mix of confusion and defiance on her face.

"Never for a moment I thought of belittling your own efforts, Niijima. You know why?", he asked, not waiting for her response. "Because I hate people who judge by the cover. I _don't know you, _i don't know what took you to get here, and I don't know what 'sacrifices' you had to make. _I respect you_."

"And in return, I expect some respect back. Are we clear?"

The staring contest continued for a while, their noses almost touching as none of them were willing to back down. Sae stared at the deep green of his eyes, full of defiance and fire, while Josuke stared back at her brown orbs filled with wavering judgement. Sae mulled over his words internally, but held her ground as a matter of honor. No matter what that _infuriating _man said, she would not be put down.

Josuke prayed that his words made her come to her senses even if a little bit, tired of her constant doubts about him. His little speech was the better he could do, fueled by the anger her words had stirred on him. That _infuriating _woman had no right to question his own trials and sacrifices.

Before any of them could say a word, the elevator stopped with a ding, its doors opening. A single person stood in front of it, suddenly gasping at the scene: Sae Niijima and Josuke Higashikata staring each other down, so close and with so much anger in the air it was a miracle no one had thrown a punch.

"Am I interrupting something?", Goro Akechi innocently asked, with a silly smile on his face.

* * *

** To be Continued -**

* * *

**A/N: **Hello again, my dudes. I'm considering making the chapters longer, at least 10k words long. Make sure to state your preference by **reviewing **the chapter.

Also, another important note: a few months back, I finished Royal.

I guess you know what that means.

After much consideration, I decided to incorporate elements from the new stuff (mostly characters), so be advised: There will be Royal spoilers :(

So, from this moment onwards, this will be a **P5/Royal/JoJo fic**. For anyone worried about pacing, relax: I'll be making **severe **changes, enough so the story has a proper structure.

And, as it's not yet clear, a **lot of shit will be different from Persona and JoJo canon**, but almost exclusively regarding the rules of metaverse stuff, _how _stealing of hearts work, Velvet Room, gods of control, Stands and stuff like that. It _is _a crossover after all.

See you next time.


	4. In the Flesh

**Disclaimer: **

_**"Kamoshida talking"**_

**"Other voice..."**

* * *

**Chapter 3: In the Flesh**

* * *

"I think I broke my ass", Ryuji groaned, sitting up and rubbing his back with a pained expression on his face.

"Ugh, lucky you", Akira groaned back, rubbing his sides while getting up on his feet and dusting himself, his uniform now wet and dirty. Seeing Ryuji still on the ground, he quickly approached the boy and extended a hand, which he accepted.

"Thanks man", he offered, repeating the same gesture as the dark haired boy and trying to clean his uniform. "What the hell happened? Did we get run over or something?"

The question prompted Akira to look around him, trying to find any evidence of the perpetrator: he found none, the alleyway still empty and devoid of anything that could hit them with enough force to throw them into the ground like that. Akira scratched his head, confused.

"Do… do you think it was some biker?", he questioned Ryuji, who was also looking around them for any clues. "Maybe he tried to take a shortcut and came straight to us."

"No way, man. You can't even drive a motorcycle around these streets", Ryuji responded, scrunching his brows and trying to think. "Shit, that was rough. You okay?"

Akira looked down, trying to find any bruises or torn clothes, but found everything intact. "Yeah, I'm good. You?"

"Same here", the blond answered with a sigh, before noticing something on the ground and pointing at it. "Oh, hey, you dropped your phone."

Akira blinked, remembering what he was looking at right before getting his ass whooped. _His phone?_

He picked up the object from the ground, turning the screen on and gasping: the interface, which was previously mostly black and white in color, now sported a dark blue mixed with golden flourishes that extended from top to bottom. An app was open, showing some kind of map of the area around them, with strange symbols dotting it.

"Ugh, just my luck. Falling on my ass in the middle of some dirty puddle. Mom's gonna kill me", Ryuji sighed again, before looking up. "Well, at least it's not raining any mo- WHOA!"

Akira quickly turned his head towards the blond, only to see him staring at the sky with his mouth agape and wide eyes, like he was seeing something absurd and unbelievable. Lifting his head upwards, Akira understood Ryuji's reaction: the sky, previously grey and morose from the rainy weather, was now colored with a deep shade of red, making the clouds seem ominous and dark like some kind of hellish vision. Whirlwinds twirled around the sky, the clouds coming and going as if the sky itself was alive and pulsating.

"What the… _what the fuck?_", Ryuji eloquently offered, stepping back and leaning on a wall with his hand. "What is this, some kind of storm?!"

Akira kept quiet, his heartbeat slowly steadying from the fall before. He didn't understand what was happening… _hell_, the last few days had been bizarre, but _this _was a whole new level of fucked up. He looked down at his phone again, before a robotic voice once again came from the device.

"_Please proceed forward. You will arrive at your destination in… 10 seconds"_, it informed dryly. Ryuji broke his concentration from the strange sky and looked at Akira's phone.

"W-What was that?"

"My… my phone has been acting up since earlier", he answered, before shaking his head. That was the least of his problems right now. "Anyway, we need to talk to someone. Aren't we close to the school?"

Ryuji perked up, his mouth forming an 'oh'. "You're right! Come on, we need to ask someone what's happening!", he chirped, turning his back on Akira and speeding up towards the end of the alley. Not five seconds later, Akira heard Ryuji scream again, making him gasp and follow the blond to see if anything had happened.

"WHAT?!"

Akira prepared to ask him if everything was alright, but the words died on his mouth as soon as he looked at the building in front of them. Less than 24 hours ago, Akira had been given a good view of the school: H shaped, neutral colored and traditionally built, Shujin had no remarkable visual references, being a normal high school in every sense of the word.

The fact that it now looked like a gigantic castle was enough to make him hold his breath.

"I-It can't be", Ryuji stammered, turning to look at the alley they had just emerged from. "We came the right way! Is this really the school?"

Upon further inspection, the two noticed the usual sign that read "Shujin Academy" right in front of large metal gates, akin to a medieval castle. Above it, many towers and fortresses dotted the view, each with a multitude of windows and balconies lit by torches and lanterns. The castle twisted and swirled before their eyes, as if their sight was playing tricks on their minds.

"What… what do we do?", Ryuji questioned, turning to Akira for some explanation.

The dark boy suppressed the urge to chuckle. He was sure now: he was completely insane. Mad. Cuckoo. There was _no way such a thing was real, _he must've been tied to a chair in some mental hospital, while Ryuji and everything else was simply a fruit of his demented mind. _Yeah_, that was it! He would simply close his eyes and wake up.

Any moment now.

"Dude, what are you doing?! Don't pass out at a moment like this!", the voice that his mind had named Ryuji called him with an exasperated tone.

Akira blinked, opening his eyes. The castle was still there: it was no hallucination.

"I…", he tried to find words, his mouth dry. "I don't know."

Ryuji stared at him with a concerned expression, before looking at the castle with a scowl.

"W-We should take a look", he suggested, placing his hands on his pockets. "I mean, someone must know what's happening!"

Akira took a deep breath, catching himself up: he was right, there was no point pretending it was a dream. They needed to know what was going on, and they needed to know_ why_, even if a part of Akira wanted to simply run away screaming.

He turned to Ryuji and nodded. "Okay, let's see if we can find someone", he said, his sudden dumb courage making him step forward without waiting for the blond. Ryuji gasped and quickly caught up with him, walking at a slow pace while observing his surroundings.

They eventually reached the front gate, finding it slightly open, enough so they could squeeze through and enter the castle's interior. The two gaped at the place, a huge salon full of baroque architecture and red tapestries over the wall and floor. At the center, two sets of stairs led to a colossal painting depicting a knight in shining armor.

Strangely, the knight seemed familiar somehow.

"What the hell?", Ryuji cursed when they approached the center of the place, squinting his eyes. "Is that _Kamoshida?_"

Akira raised a brow and turned to look at the painting again: with curly hair and an enormous chin, the person depicted indeed looked like the man, judging by how little Akira had seen of the teacher. Posing heroically, Kamoshida smiled smugly, an image that gave him nausea for some reason.

"Just how could they build all this stuff in one day?!", Ryuji questioned, spinning around. "Yesterday everything was completely normal!"

Akira didn't have the opportunity to reply, as a shout echoed in the room, loud and autoritary.

"**Halt! Who are you? Identify yourselves!"**

Turning to look at the new arrival, the two almost soiled their pants at the newcomer's appearance: a bulky, tall person wearing full plate armor, the helm designed to look like a screaming face. With a sword in one hand and a shield on the other, the person (whoever it was) quickly approached the duo, positioning the sword in a threatening way.

"_Jesus christ_, you scared the shit out of me, man!", Ryuji squealed, before placing a hand on his chest and chuckling. "I thought nobody was here! What are you wearing that for?!"

Akira observed as the knight held his sword even higher, making the boy step back by instinct. He looked at Ryuji, who didn't seem to grasp the situation properly, laughing as he approached the armored person and placed a hand on the shield.

"Man, this looks real as hell!", he quipped. "Nobody told me about any cosplay event!"

As if by reaction, the knight used the shield to ram into Ryuji's core, the boy falling on the ground out of breath.

"W-What the hell! That really hurts!"

"**Intruders have been found at the lobby!"**, even more voices were audible now, Akira spotting at least a dozen knights approaching the scene.

"I don't think this is cosplay", he managed to calmly whisper to Ryuji, before noticing that his own legs were shaking.

Soon they were swarmed, both being tackled by the insanely heavy knights and in the process of being restrained. Ryuji and Akira screamed and squirmed, trying to break free from their grasps.

"What the hell?! Let go of me, you fucks!", Ryuji cursed them, trying to kick one of them but instead hitting the metal of their breasts with a clang.

Akira tried to think of something to say, to protest, to plead, but once again the words died on his mouth as he watched one of the knights knock Ryuji asleep, his body slumping on their arms.

"**Lord Kamoshida will want to know about this"**, one of the knights remarked.

Akira frowned, still trying to free himself from their grasps.

"Kamoshi…?"

He felt a sharp pain on his neck, and everything went dark before he could say anything else.

* * *

Ann Takamaki intertwined her golden locks on her fingers, looking through the car window towards the pouring rain completely mute. She only had to keep silent for the rest of the ride, praying that the man besides her would do the same.

"You look great today, Takamaki-chan", he suddenly said, with that greasy tone of his. Ann winced, not turning to look at him.

"T-Thank you", she simply replied, swallowing hard. It was how it usually started.

"Aw, don't be so cold", he continued, and she could feel his malicious smile even without looking. "I'm just stating the truth. How are things at class?"

"Fine", she lied. The rumors, even if she pretended to ignore them, would always make something crawl below her skin. The man responsible for them was sitting right beside her, driving without any concern at all, so the sensation was even worse at that moment. "I'm having some trouble with physics, but other than that, it's fine", she explained. _"Stop talking. Stop giving him things to continue this conversation", _she chided herself mentally.

"Ah, I see. That's good, Takamaki-chan", he continued, turning the wheel to the right. "But if you're having trouble with a subject, you should ask for help. I'm available, if you want. What would Shiho think if you looked like you were slacking off on physics? She'd be very disappointed, i'm sure."

Ann suppressed the shaking that had spread through her entire body, her eyes watering slightly. She swallowed and kept her posture. For Shiho.

"I'm sorry, but I still have daily check-ins with my doctor", she maintained her cultivated lie. "Appendicitis is serious business if not treated correctly."

The man let out something that sounded like a low grunt, but Ann pretended to not acknowledge that.

"Very well, you should take care of yourself", he said, pulling up on the driveway. Outside, many Shujin students were already heading to class, crowding the narrow streets. "I'll see you around, Takamaki-chan."

Ann opened the door and left the car, waving to the man and forcing a smile. She slowly walked towards the school, climbed the stairs and silently made her way to the bathroom.

Locking the door of one of the stalls, her eyes bawled out in tears, her breath coming in short bursts. She gripped her knuckles tight until they were white with pressure, anger and frustration and fear coming all out at once.

For Shiho.

Inside his car, Kamoshida quietly grunted, the diffuse purple colored figure right behind him growling and salivating in anger. "Little bitch", he barked to himself, before leaving the car.

* * *

"**... thy strength… -ake up… call upon the cha-"**

Akira woke up gasping, his breath uneven and agitated. Coming to his senses and using his arms for support as he sat up, he rubbed his sore arms and legs, looking around him for some sort of explanation. He remembered… _knights?_ No, it was just a dream. There was no way something like that could ever-

"Open this thing, damn it!", the loud yelling ringed on his ear, making him squint his eyes in annoyance. Turning his head, he saw the blonde boy, Ryuji, banging on the cell door and screaming as loud as he could.

Wait, _cell door?_

Akira jumped from the bed in a single movement, his heartbeat at an accelerated rate as he surveyed his surroundings: the stone wall, humid and wet; the bed he had been lying on, made of wood and hay; the cell door, imposing and metallic, being attacked by Ryuji in a fit of rage.

This, _all of this_, was fucking impossible!

"Oh, crap, you woke up! Thank god!", he heard Ryuji say, quickly approaching him. His brow was sweaty, evidence of all the screaming and banging he had done. "I thought you were done for!"

"I'm… I'm okay", Akira swallowed hard, sitting once again on the bed and trying to get back his bearings. "How long have we been here?"

Ryuji took the opportunity to sit down on a bench as he began to think, the physical effort now taking its toll. "Shit, I don't know. All I can remember was those knight dudes and then bam! I woke up here", he explained, frowning and turning to look at the door again. "This is so fucking weird. They _attacked us! _This is a crime, god dammit!"

Akira placed a hand on his chin, thinking about the situation. "Just so we're clear: this never happened before, right? Is Shujin, uh, famous for pranks or stuff like that?"

"Hell no!", Ryuji answered, throwing his hands in the air. "Even if it did, they can't simply knock us down like that! These… _weirdos _are the real deal!"

Akira agreed bitterly: whoever those guys were, they weren't exactly friendly, and their swords were certainly not for show. He lifted himself from the bed, approaching the cell door while his legs got rid of the soreness.

"No use tryin', it's locked", Ryuji sighed, looking through the bars. "But… where _are we? _This is some creepy ass place."

Looking beyond the door, they could see a large complex of cells, doors and stairs, all decorated with chains, hooks and strange tables with collars and handcuffs attached to them. Akira shuddered at the sight.

A prison. How fitting, he bitterly thought.

"_Oh,_ I think I can see a way out", Ryuji pointed towards one of the stairs, which led to a large open door that probably accessed the upper floors. "I mean, if we could even reach it…", he concluded, groaning and shaking the bars again.

Akira stood silent for a moment, his ears catching some strange sound echoing on the place. He frowned, approaching the cell door and placing an ear out of the confining cage.

"You hear that?", he asked.

Ryuji raised a brow, scratching his head. "Hear what?", he asked, imitating Akira and holding his head against the bars. "The dripping? I mean, it looks like we're underground, so-"

"_No_, the other thing!", Akira cut him, his face scrunching again in confusion as he started to hear it more clearly. "It's… _moaning_."

"M-Moaning?!", Ryuji stammered, before his eyes widened in recognition. "_Shit, _you're right! What the hell is wrong with this place? It's so messed up!"

"**STAND BACK, PRISONERS!"**

The multilayered yell scared both boys, making them retreat to the back of the cell as four knights, similar to the ones they saw before, approached the cell with a strange march on their feet. Strangely, they didn't even hear they coming.

"Hey, let us out of here!", Ryuji perked up first, gripping his knuckles. "I don't know what kind of fucked up joke you're playing, but this isn't funny!"

The knights didn't respond, instead unlocking the door and opening it. They formed a corridor on the exit, standing up to attention like some kind of bizarre military formation and pumping their chests.

"_**It isn't? Hohoho, that's where you're wrong, Sakamoto: this is VERY funny."**_

That was enough to shut Ryuji up, his eyes widening. "What the _fuck_… is that…?"

Before he could continue, Akira witnessed one of the weirdest sights he had ever seen in his life: coming through the standing knights, the source of the voice revealed himself, to the shock of both the boys.

A man, wearing nothing more than a thong and with a red cape strapped on his shoulders, walked pompously towards them, scrutiny in his eyes and a crooked smile on his face. His hair was curly, falling on his shoulders as a huge chin supported his smug mouth, his teeth shining as if mocking them.

On his head, stood a golden crown, almost ridiculously large and disproportionate from his body.

"K-Kamoshida?!", Ryuji barked with incredulity, his words making Akira gasp: he swore the man was familiar, and now he was certain. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Kamoshida (or the strange man that looked like him) cackled loudly, placing his hands on his stomach. He glared at Ryuji, his yellow eyes shining threateningly.

"_**Ooh, Sakamoto, you're still the same stupid fuck I knew"**_, he mocked, lifting a finger and nodding to the guards. _**"Hold them up."**_

The guards quickly swarmed on them again, Ryuji protesting and squirming while Akira grunted in pain as the knight shoved him against a wall, making him dizzy. His head throbbed in pain, but he could still hear their conversation faintly.

"_**But to think you'd actually come and storm my castle"**_, he laughed again, shaking his head. _**"Tsk, tsk. I guess I underestimated your stupidity."**_

"Let go of me! You're gonna regret that, Kamoshida!", Ryuji barked, being held by his arms and neck, struggling to even talk.

"_**HOH, bold words for a vermin. And you're going to do what exactly, hm? Break your leg on me?"**_

Ryuji seethed at his words, his teeth grinding against each other. "You _motherfucker_! You think nobody's going to do anything? They're gonna bust your ass!", he yelled, before the knight tightened the grip on his neck, making Ryuji gasp for air.

"_**Are you forgetting something, Sakamoto?"**_, he mocked, spreading his arms around. _**"This is MY castle, my kingdom! I can do whatever the fuck I want, whenever I fucking want to! Those vermins in the volleyball team? Here, I can grind them to a pulp as much as I want, slave them away as much as I need and… ah, have whoever I want from the female division…"**_

Akira frowned: he remembered the blonde girl from earlier, entering that man's car with a downcast expression. He didn't think much of it at the time, but now...

Kamoshida approached Ryuji, the blonde gagging as the teacher's breath entered his nostrils. _**"I'm sure you understand, right, Sakamoto? Those looong legs, those firm breasts, aaall ripe for the picking, eh?**_

He leaned his head back and barked a laugh. _**"Hah! As if any of them would even glance at you for a second, you fucking pig! Women strive for one thing only: the alpha of the pack, the one on the top!"**_

Kamoshida suddenly lunged his arm straight into Ryuji's stomach, making the boy gag and spit, a whimper of pain coming from his ragged breath.

"_You… piece of shit_", Ryuji went on, trashing his legs in a futile attempt of reaching Kamoshida. "_I'm gonna… I'm gonna…"_

"_**Oh, stop barking, you dog. Just admit that an useless dog like you can't do anything right"**_, Kamoshida laughed again, before smiling dangerously. _**"But, if you won't keep quiet… then I have no choice."**_

Akira watched as Kamoshida raised an arm, holding it in the air for a few seconds. He frowned, not understanding what he was doing. Would he beat Ryuji again? Was he ordering his guards to do something? Was he-

Before he could finish his thought, Akira saw something that made his blood grow cold, his body stiff from fear and unbelief. It was nothing more than a shimmer at first, some kind of afterimage coming from Kamoshida's back. Slowly, _something _took form, shining and warping as if it didn't belong to this world, a layer of light and fumes revolving it.

It was humanoid, but the wrongness of the proportions and the absurdity of its form made it clear to Akira that it was no human thing: its torso was thin, shaped like a transparent tube filled with vials colored differently, from red, to yellow, green and others. Its arms, eight of them, came from his sides and his back, all of them with long needles at their extremities and squirming as if having minds of their own, contrasting with the synthetic and mechanical look of the entire creature. Its legs were long, shaped like an insect's, bending its body threateningly. Patterns of words and symbols dotted its entire body, the color purple and red being dominant while a few junctions and details were of a shining gold.

On its head stood some strange helmet shaped like a tall crown hiding the creature's face, a face that had no characteristics at all except for parallel golden lines that came from the top and converged at a sneering mouth that salivated in anger. Even without any other expression or features, the creature instilled pure _fear _in Akira's heart, placing his mind on the events of last month.

A monster made of gold. Him, frozen in place as the police cuffed him. The man sneering as his life was thrown at the lowest depths of hell. Akira whimpered, the words dying on his mouth as Kamoshida and the creature approached Ryuji, side by side.

"_『__**In the Flesh**__**』"**__**, **_Kamoshida uttered, before the creature brought one of its arms down on Ryuji, the needle on its tip penetrating the boy's flesh. Ryuji barely reacted, his eyes widening for a moment before he slumped down with a low sound, his gaze now morose and sleepy.

"You…_ you…_", he muttered and salivated, his entire body seemingly numb and unresponsive.

"_**Ahh, real quiet now, huh?", **_Kamoshida mocked and crossed his arms, the cretured removing the needle from Ryuji's chest. _**"Gotta admit, you're much better like this! Where's your bravado now, huh?!"**_

Akira now was breathing unevenly, his whole body shaking as he watched the scene. It was the second time he saw something like that, something like that _fucking thing _back home. His brain tried to comprehend it, while every fiber of his body _begged _him to look away, to simply close his eyes and cry like he did that night a month ago.

"_**But you're no fun like this, are you?"**_, Kamoshida kept going, joy permeating his voice. _**"You see, I have all kinds of stuff here. For example, if I use this one, you get calm and sleepy as sheep."**_

With a wordless order from Kamoshida, the creature raised the arm that had been used to attack Ryuji, showing the pointy tip dripping with some purple liquid. Akira, resigned to watching, noticed that one of the vials on the creature's torso stirred, specifically the one with the purple substance.

"_**But! If I use this one"**_, he raised another arm, this one dripping red liquid, thick as blood. _**"Then things get interesting!", **_he declared as he brought the needle down to Ryuji's chest, penetrating the skin but drawing no blood. Akira would be relieved by it, if it wasn't for what happened next.

Ryuji let out one of the most horrifying screams of pain Akira had ever heard in his entire life, something he would remember for months to come. Ryuji squirmed and trashed, still under the knights' hold, while almost tearing his throat out in desperation and pain. It only took a second of the needle's touch to make him react like that, making Akira wonder _what the fuck had he done to him?_

"_**Yeah, yeah, pretty painful, huh?", **_Kamoshida cackled, standing back as the monster under his command removed the needle from Ryuji's body. _**"This is almost as fun as breaking your leg for real!"**_

"_STOP!"_, yelled Akira, already tired of seeing his colleague suffer. The words simply came out of his mouth on their own, desperate for Kamoshida to stop. The man turned with a brow raised, as if only now noticing Akira's presence. Thankfully Ryuji had stopped screaming, coming to his senses and looking at Akira's direction with hurtful eyes, no doubt still recovering from the pain that he felt before.

"_**And what do we have here?"**_

Akira held his breath, already thin from all the struggling he made trying to break free. Kamoshida approached him with a sneer, chuckling.

"_**Ah, yes, the notorious transfer student! What's that, Sakamoto? You thought that you and your friend here could gang up on me? Don't be ridiculous."**_

Ryuji gargled and struggled for air, glaring at Kamoshida with one open eye. "_L-Leave him… out of this, you asshole!"_

"_**Oohh, but how could I? You see, while you are too much of a pussy to do anything, this guy here…"**_, Kamoshida taunted, turning his head to Akira with a filthy smile on his face. _**"The one is a real criminal, did you know that? The scummiest of the scummiest!"**_

Akira's heart skipped a beat. His eyes widened as he stared at Kamoshida, incredulous. Did they know…?

"_**Honestly, I was surprised when they told me. This kind of filth, in my school?"**_

Shut up. Shut up…!

"_**Nonono, this couldn't be. I couldn't let that pass" **_he laughed, Akira now noticing that Ryuji looked at him with a confused look. Of course: even him would scorn him if he knew. _**"So I took a measure, of course: I let the whooole school know about this guy and the fucked up shit he did!"**_

Akira shut his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to block out Kamoshida's words. No, _it was bullshit! _He was supposed to try again! _He was innocent!_

" **-eak free-", **a voice echoed on his head, making him open his eyes in surprise. It was different from Kamoshida's. **"-avage them…"**

"_**I would've enjoyed making him squirm and be shunned by everyone on Shujin. Would he go mad with the pressure? A fitting punishment, huh?"**_

Shut up, shut up, _shut up, shut up!_

Kamoshida laughed once again, grabbing Akira by his dark hair and pulling his head up, staring him on the eyes with a sadistic look.

"_**Unfortunately for you, I don't think that's and option anymore", **_he snickered. _**"Both of you are going to die… but before that, I'm gonna have some fun!"**_

_Shut up, SHUT UP, __**SHUT UP!**_

" '_**In the Flesh' here is perfect for this kinda stuff, you know? He can bring pain, fear, madness, even happiness if I'm in a good mood!"**_, he explained, summoning _In the Flesh_to his side. _**"But today… I'm not in a good mood."**_

**...ge them...**

Akira coughed, his head throbbing with a sharp pain. Something kept repeating itself on his head, but he couldn't understand what it said. Kamoshida raised one of his arms, a movement that _In the Flesh _repeated, and licked his lips.

"_**Don't worry, this is only going to hurt a bit…"**_, he cackled.

**...rava...em…**

'What?', Akira wondered, looking straight ahead towards Kamoshida. He realized that in a second, his whole world would explode in pain, that every fiber of his being drowned in a cauldron of suffering. He would beg for Kamoshida to stop, he would hear Ryuji scream again, and he would hear that disgusting man laugh and laugh at his expense, at the expense of his pain. Right now, the feeling he should be experiencing was fear, pure terror, a primal instinct to beg for his life.

Instead, he felt pure steaming _rage_. And the world came to a halt.

He didn't want to cower from Kamoshida, no. He wanted to put his hands on his neck and squeeze it until his eyes popped out, he wanted to rip his arms off and leave him to bleed out and suffer. He wanted to break every bone of his body, and then, break every ounce of spirit and sanity he had. He wanted him to be consumed to ashes, nothing in this world a legacy of that piece of shit's existence.

And after that rage filled thought, Akira slowly glanced to his side, noticing that someone was watching him very closely. Or rather, _something_.

**...age...**_**them…**_!

The figure stared straight to him, its red eyes bizarrely formed as if divided in many layers diagonally, its body lean and tall, hunchbacked as a way to level Akira on his eyes. All over it, chains and _chains_ covered the being's body, glowing with a blue flame and moving around as if alive, the torso itself tangled in what could be hundreds of meters of the metallic stuff, spreading to its arms and forming some kind of protective layer. Small metallic pins covered specific spots on its body, where the chains tangled and bended like some kind of knot so complicated no one would ever solve. The whole being was as black as the night, with only the eyes and the strange overcoat it wore being red as blood. The overcoat was actually cut in dozens of thin stripes, covering the body but still fluttering in the air.

**..vage them...!**

The red eyes and small mouth were expressionless, having no pupils, iris or nose. Above all that, something that seemed to mock a tophat spiked upwards, falling to its side due to the sheer size of it.

**...avage them…!**

Akira knew he should've felt horrified by the sight, but instead he felt a connection to it so great that he couldn't help but smile. The being turned its head and looked towards Kamoshida.

**Our strength is born of captivity, of the rejection of idleness and the rage against the oppressor. **

**Our is the fury of retribution. The chains that bind us no longer hold us back: they serve us now.**

**They, like our resolve, are **_**unbreakable**_**.**

Akira smiled, a feeling of joy and bloodlust filling his chest. Slowly, he gave his command… no, he simply did it as easily as raising his own arm.

"_『_**Helter Skelter**_**』"**_

**RAVAGE THEM.**

Before _In the Flesh_'s needle could even approach Akira, a punch was thrown out of nowhere, hitting it square on the jaw. It was almost as if a car had crashed directly into it: Akira heard bone and skin crack under the pressure of his blow, sending the enemy flying backwards with Kamoshida in tow, the man screaming in pain and surprise.

For a moment, all the knights looked back to see the scene: in one moment, Lord Kamoshida had the intruder under his grasp, only to be thrown back in the next and hit the wall with a loud crash.

Ryuji, still dizzy from the torture session, had widen eyes and mouth agape from unbelief. "What the…"

Akira didn't give the guards time to react: he could feel the ground below them as he willed two sets of chains to snake beneath their feet, locking the legs of two of them tightly in place and lifting them in the air as if they weighed nothing. With a smile and a flick of his finger, the snake-like chains twisted and launched the two towards the nearest wall, the strength of the inertia and impact making their armors break and dissolve in black smoke.

"**L-Lord Kamoshida!", **they cried, releasing Ryuji onto the ground and turning to Akira with rage on their voices. **"You filthy plebeian! How dare you do that to our king!"**

Akira felt the urge to laugh, the joy of destruction on his heart too much to bear. Grinning, he recalled the chains back to _Helter Skelter_ before grabbing one loose set and spinning it on his side, waiting.

The knights yelled and pulled out their swords, charging in Akira's direction. The chain _Helter Skelter_ was spinning gathered speed, with Akira commanding it to raise the disc of flaming steel above his head and slash it in his enemies' direction. The first had tried to hit him with an uppercut: obviously a mistake. The chain tangled with the blade, _Helter Skelter_'s strength far surpassing the knight's as the blade fell from his grasp into Akira's own. _Helter Skelter_ spinned in place, bringing the chain slashing horizontally with the sword still stuck on the tip and hitting the two enemies with a single cutting blow, both disappearing with a whimper in a cloud of black mist.

All was silent for a moment. All that was left was pieces and parts of empty armors scattered around, like the aftermath of a battle.

Akira took a deep breath, recalling the spinning chain and _Helter Skelter_ to his side. The effort it took to swiftly dispose of the guards took its toll on him, with Akira quickly supporting his arms on his knees and catching his breath. He would've stayed that way if not by the more pressing matters in front of him.

"Dude…", he heard Ryuji on the ground, grasping his chest in pain but still looking appalled by what happened. "That was _amazing! _How did you do that?!"

Akira looked at his own hands, still feeling the surge of power from before. What _was _that? That being that obeyed every command he gave, almost as if an extension of his own body?

"I don't know", he replied, before smirking. "But _I like it_."

Ryuji lifted himself up with some difficulty, approaching Akira in awe. "I mean, it was like you had psychic powers or some shit!", he cheered excitedly, before pausing and making an expression of realization. "_Ooh, _is that's why your name is 'Akira'?!"

Akira understood but decided not to acknowledge the reference, instead raising a brow at his words. "What do you mean, psychic? You didn't see it?"

"See? See what?", Ryuji questioned, confused.

Akira looked at his arm, lifting it in the air and concentrating. He tried to summon the power in the same way he did before, focusing his will to reach out of his body. Not a second after, a ghostly arm came out of his own, flickering and diffused, but still recognizable.

Akira gave Ryuji a questioning look, but the blond simply stared at his arm without any reaction. "Your arm? What about it?"

Huh. Strange.

"It's nothing", he sighed, deciding to leave those questions for another time. "We need to-"

"_**You pieces of trash…"**_, a familiar voice came from a pile of rubble nearby, making both boys freeze on the spot. _**"I'm gonna… I'M GONNA…"**_

They quickly turned their heads, only to see Kamoshida lifting himself from the ground, a few bruises on his body but nothing else.

"_**I'm gonna cut your head off and shit down your necks!"**_, he yelled angrily, raising an arm. _**"In the Flesh!"**_

By Kamoshida's command, his ghostly counterpart was summoned from his body, still as terrifying and threatening as before. It's needle arms wiggled in the air, searching intently for their next target.

"_Oh shit!_", Ryuji yelped, quickly nudging Akira's shoulder. "He's back up! Do that again!"

Akira gritted his teeth and tried to summon _Helter Skelter_, but the being simply hovered in the air for a second before disappearing, the exhaustion on Akira's body making it impossible for it to do anything.

"I'm t-too tired", he winced, holding on Ryuji for support, to the blond's surprise and panic. "I can't summon it for long."

Kamoshida slowly approached them, the anger on his eyes almost visible as electricity in the air. Both Akira and Ryuji backed against the wall, now without any options or escape routes.

"W-What do we do?!", Ryuji pleaded, a question that Akira had no answer for. The dark haired teen looked all around him for an exit, but found none as Kamoshida and _In the Flesh _approached them.

"_**Die you pieces of SHIT!"**_

_In the Flesh _swung its arm for a blow, Akira and Ryuji closing their eyes in defeat.

...

Only to open them seconds later to find themselves still unharmed.

"What the…?"

The two looked ahead, seeing Kamoshida furiously trashing and hitting… _them._

Two exact copies of the boys now stood against the wall on their left, being absolutely destroyed by Kamoshida, the man yelling and screaming in anger. The doppelgängers fell to the ground, spilling blood and guts all around as their… 'real' counterparts looked horrified at the scene.

Frozen in place, the two hesitated at the bizarre scene, not knowing how to react.

"A-Are you seeing what i'm seeing?!", Ryuji shakely asked, pointing at the bloodbath in front of them. "What the fuck? Who are them?!l

Akira tried to formulate an answer, his brain still trying to wrap around the sight of _two copies of themselves _being hacked, while they cowered in fear unharmed.

He opened his mouth, but another voice beat him to it.

"_Are you two stupid?! Run, you idiots!"_

The two dumbly looked around them, confused by the stranger's voice. "W-Who's there?, demanded Ryuji.

"_SHUT UP AND RUN! I can't hold it for much longer!"_, the voice demanded, louder this time.

Akira took a deep breath, eying Kamoshida still attacking their fakes. Right behind the man, there was a large opening that let straight to the cell's door and freedom.

He decided to take his chances. "Fuck it, _let's go!_"

He grabbed Ryuji's uniform and dragged him out, the blond yelping as he was pulled from his stupor. They quickly exited the cell, supporting themselves on one another running for their lives as they made their way upstairs.

From below, Akira could only hear the sounds of bones crushing and being cut, their copies being left for their fates.

Without a word, both ran as if the devil was on their tails, passing through corridors and passages seemingly at random.

"_To the left!"_, the voice from before commanded, both obeying it without question. Twists and turns, doors and holes, they navigate the place being guided by the voice without a body that saved them from their fate.

Soon, they found large stairs that led to a big door above them, Akira already taking the first steps toward it.

"_W-Wait!", _Ryuji stopped him, pulling his uniform.

"What is it? We need to run!", he desperately answered, not wanting to spend one more second on that place.

Ryuji stopped and slowly approached a cell window, large enough so they could see an entire section right below their floor. Akira grunted and followed the blond, wanting to see what the matter was.

"_Look!"_, Ryuji pointed downwards.

To Akira's surprise, he saw a whole complex of enormous torture decices sprawled around in a large room: a running machine with spikes on its end, chains and handcuffs hanging on the air, tables with volleyballs beinght thrown with immense velocity at them, all sorts of strange decices that Akira knew at a glance that their purpose was pain.

To worsen it all, they were being _used _at that exact moment: dozens of people, students and teenagers by the look of it, were subjected to torture as they ran from spikes, were hit by huge volleyballs and tried to dodge a multitude of spikes and spears thrown at them, many if them already on the ground bleeding.

"I-I recognize these people!", Ryuji gripped the bars in front of him. "_They're the volleyball team!"_

Akira's eyes widened as he looked down at the freak show in front of him, the pieces of a puzzle forming on his mind. Ryuji had said it right after they met: Kamoshida abused the team, downright to physical violence.

But he didn't imagine that it was something on _that level._

"_Don't stop! You're almost there!"_, the voice called again, snapping Akira from the sight.

"What?! Wait, we have to save them!", Ryuji yelled angrily at no one in particular, seeing that the voice lacked a body.

"_Save WHAT? They're not real, you moron! Just run!"_

Akira gritted his teeth, his ears already picking up the faint sound of armored knights coming from the stairs below them. It seemed that Kamoshida had noticed something was wrong.

"Ryuji, we need to go!", he said, grabbing the blond by his uniform but met with resistance.

"We can't leave them here!"

"Ryuji, if we don't run, _we're dead!"_, Akira argued, sweat running from his temples. "They're coming!"

Ryuji looked back and sucked on his lips, his breath ragged from all the running. After a second, he hesitantly nodded, turning his back to the cell.

"F-Fine. Let's go!"

They ran up the stairs, the sound of dozens of knights running and screaming after them, this time not even glancing backwards.

* * *

"Holy shit, I've never ran so fast in my entire life", Ryuji wheezed, supporting himself on a fence by his side.

Both had run until their lungs came to the brink of failure, finally arriving at the front door of the enormous castle. Once outside, the two scurried off and hid behind a wall, stopping to catch their breaths.

Akira leaned on his knees, coughing and wheezing from the effort. "Yeah, I think my sides are going to _explode._"

A few moments passed, the only sound audible being their ragged breaths as they calmed down.

"What…", Ryuji dared to start, looking at Akira. "_What the hell was that?_"

Akira resigned himself to chuckle. "You'll have to be more specific."

Ryuji groaned. "_Everything!_ What is this place?!", he threw his hands on the air, trying to make a point. "I don't even know how the hell we got out alive!"

"Well, you can thank _me_ for a start", an unfamiliar voice perked up.

Ryuji and Akira raised their heads, looking around trying to find its source. They found nothing, only the same empty corner they took refuge in.

"Dude, you said something?", Ryuji asked, scratching his head.

"Ugh, down here, you morons!"

Slowly, they looked down on the ground, coming face to face with… a cat.

The feline had black fur with spots of white on its neck, from which a yellow cloth hung like some kind of scarf. It looked at them with… a scowl on its face, as if capable of doing such a thing.

"A… cat?", Ryuji questioned, squinting his eyes. "What's it doing here?"

Akira kept analyzing the animal, noticing its uncanny behaviour: its brows were furrowed, its posture was at complete attention to them, and its tail…

The cat moved its tail upwards, showing that a metallic object was being held by its grip and being waved around. Akira's eyes widened, his mouth open in disbelief: he had seen that cat before!

Then the cat _sighed._

"I am _not a cat!_", the creature declared angrily. "You two should be bowing to my presence! I just saved your lives!"

Silence hung in the air, both Ryuji and Akira staring at the talking cat in front of them with blank looks on their faces.

The cat _raised a brow_. "Uh… why are you looking at me like that?"

Both boys screamed and jumped back to the wall, startled by yet _another _impossible thing happening in front of their eyes.

"A-A talking cat?!", Ryuji stammered. "For real?!"

Akira rubbed his temples and sighed: a talking feline was far from the weirdest thing he had witnessed that day.

"_Not a cat_", it clarified, glaring at Ryuji. "My name is Morgana, and I'm human to the bone!"

"Uh…", Akira started, questioning the truth of the cat's affirmation, but Ryuji beat him to it.

"Like hell you are! And if you're not a cat, then you're some weird furry monster!"

Morgana hissed at Ryuji. "Take that back, you monkey! I should've left you to rot down there!"

"Wait… you're the one who saved us?", Akira interrupted the spat between the two, his headache growing stronger by listening to it. "You were the one who guided us up here?"

The ca… _Morgana _huffed away from Ryuji and turned to Akira, nodding its head.

"Yep, the one and only. You should consider yourselves lucky: I don't extend my generosity so easily", he smugly proclaimed.

"But how?", questioned Ryuji. "One moment we were going to get our asses beaten, and in the next, some… _weird _copies of us were standing there! You're telling me that was you?!"

"The one and only", Morgana puffed his chest and lifted his head, as if expecting high praise. "Doing that was really easy, tough: everyone was distracted by, you know, wanting to kill each other."

"Oh", Akira mumbled, words escaping him for a moment. He wanted to ask Morgana how he had done it, but acknowledgement of his help was first on the list. "Then… thank you. You really saved us back there", he added, coughing on his hand.

Reflecting upon it, it must've been quite the weird sight: the dark haired boy thanking some smug talking cat, looking embarrassed while doing it.

"Heh, don't be so sure: I don't do charity", Morgana snickered, moving around them with feline swagger. "I've seen your Stand in action: pretty powerful, all things considered. Maybe with a little bit of training, you could be of great help to me."

Akira squinted his eyes in confusion. "My what?"

Morgana leaned his head sideways, looking at Akira as if he had said something really stupid. "Uhh… your Stand? You know, the black and red thingy with the chains?"

"Gotta admit", he smirked. "It did look pretty cool. _Helter Skelter_, was it?"

Akira scratched his head, Morgana's comment bringing up a question on his head. Where did he take the name from? It wasn't a set of words he would usually use, it had just… sprung on his mind out of nowhere.

"Y-Yeah, that's the name, I think", he answered, looking down at his arm. "If it didn't appear back there, we'd be dead."

"Wait… you're saying you just summoned it for the first time?", Morgana asked exasperated. "Damn! I guess you were really lucky I was around, then! That guy would've crushed you in a second!"

"Wow, wow, wow, hold up a second!", Ryuji chimed in, being left out of the conversation. "None of this makes sense! What are you guys talking about?"

"_None of your damn business_, that's what we're talking about!", Morgana hissed back at Ryuji.

"Why, _you little…!"_

"_Ryuji_, calm down!", Akira interrupted him, making the blond clamp his mouth and glare at the cat. "Morgana, hold up for a moment: we have some questions."

"Huh?", Morgana lifted one ear. "Well, sure, shoot."

"Where… _where are we?"_, Akira asked, looking around the bizarre world around them. The city was visible behind them, its building empty and impregnated with darkness. The castle still stood tall and menacing, and the sky swirled and turned in red and black clouds that always looked like they were on the verge of releasing a storm.

Morgana looked around them, before _shrugging _with his little cat shoulders. "Well, I already assumed it wasn't common knowledge, so I'll bite", he replied, looking back at Akira. "This… is the _Metaverse, _the world of human cognition._"_

"The what now?", Ryuji asked, confused.

"_Cognition_. Think of it like this", Morgana sat down, starting his explanation. "The whole society has a collective consciousness, a kind of sea of notions and ideas that everybody shares. Every human in the world is a part of it, their own thoughts and perceptions shaping this place, be it individually or collectively. The Metaverse is nothing more than the personification of that: a world where the human thought is real. And _very dangerous_ sometimes, might I add."

Akira nodded, looking down on the ground and wrapping his head around the idea.

"Uhh… I don't get it", Ryuji admitted.

"_Ugh_, fine", Morgana groaned. "An example for simple minded people: if everybody thinks that dirt tastes like sushi, in this world the dirt _does taste like sushi_."

"Ohhhh, I get it", Ryuji nodded with a smile, before making an expression of disgust. "Ugh, now my mouth tastes bad."

"_Moving on_", Morgana continued. "You two were lucky I was exploring this Palace. You really chose the _worst _place to go in all the Metaverse, it's a wonder you're even alive."

"Palace?", Akira asked, wanting to know more.

"Wait, hold up", Ryuji interrupted again. "I gotta ask: why is Kamoshida here? And why does the school look like a castle?"

Morgana placed a paw below his chin, the two surprised by how human the gesture looked.

"Well, a Palace is a center of distortion: a place in the metaverse where the desires of one person become so corrupt that the whole environment changes in their favor", Morgana explained. "You said that his name was Kamoshida, right? The king of this place?"

They nodded, before Morgana went on. "Well, this guy has such warped perceptions of this place that the entire building became a castle, a _palace_. I assume he is in a very powerful position in the real world, right?"

"Damn right", Ryuji growled. "Now I get it: her thinks of himself as a king in a castle, so this weird world transforms into… a castle where he rules."

"_Congratulations_, you understood the basics of the basics", mocked Morgana. "But having deep desires is not enough for a palace to form: the person needs an extremely powerful will for it to form. Basically, only people with developed Stand abilities can have palaces."

"What do you mean?", questioned Akira. "How do these… powers we have are related to it?"

Morgana pondered for a second, before getting up on his four paws and stretching his body.

"Well, I saw your Stand, so I might as well show you mine. It's courtesy, after all", he said, before concentrating and summoning his Stand.

Behind Morgana, something with the shape of a large feline appeared, only it seemed to lack any shape at all: its colors fluctuated all around, like a rainbow of a multicolored spectrum bundled up in the form of tiger or a panther. Its features were hard to grasp, smoke and light coming out of it as the Stand's outline flickered like a malfunctioning TV.

Akira took the sight in awe, while Ryuji was left confused as his colleague looked at an empty spot on the street.

"Don't worry, it's quite stable", Morgana snickered, showing it off by raising a paw, a movement the Stand repeated. "I call it _『__**Rainbow in the Dark**__**』**_. My ability is to manipulate the perception of people close to it: I can make things disappear on other's perceptions, make something seem farther or closer than it looks, among other things. _Including_ making people see things that are not there, like _exact copies_ of you two. This is the part where you thank me again."

"Uh, thanks for saving us."

"That's right", Morgana chuckled, before raising a brow. "Well? Come on, show it to me!"

Akira muttered and 'oh!', before closing his eyes and concentrating. From his body, the ghostly form of _Helter Skelter _appeared, standing by his side without any hint of expression or thought: it was an extension of Akira, like an additional limb. He could feel everything it felt, including its raw power and strength. The sensation made Akira smirk.

"Hm, it does look powerful", Morgana conceded, analysing the Stand from head to toe. "It's the chains, right? Those things cut through those knights like butter! My _Rainbow in the Dark_ doesn't have enough strength of his own, unfortunately: I'm more powerful in the Metaverse than in the real world, being a place of cognition and stuff, but it's more of a situational Stand than a combat one."

"Wait, you can use a Stand outside of this place?", Akira questioned: in his mind, those things belonged in that bizarre world, and not in the real day-to-day reality.

"Of course: This place is nothing more than a reflection of the real world. While my ability is stronger in here, there's a lot of even stronger guys out there: if I went to battle head on with some people I found… well, I wouldn't be here now."

"My point is: Stands are the will of the soul and mind, the strength each of us has inside them. Some manifest it naturally, others need a little push", he added, wiggling his tail where the metallic object was wrapped.

Akira raised a brow. "I remembered: I saw you yesterday, walking in the school's parking lot and carrying that thing. _What is _that? Where did you get it?"

Now that he could give it a good look, Akira noticed it was actually something resembling an arrowhead: with a sharp tip, the object was made of something that resembled gold, shining where many decorations and carvings covered its surface. It was attached to a broken hilt made of wood, from where Morgana held it in his grip.

To that question, Morgana sucked his breath and scrunched his face, obviously thinking hard on the question.

"Weeell… I'm not sure, really", he admitted, to Akira's disappointment. "As far as I can remember, I've carried this thing around. It's called… a Stand Arrow", he perked up, remembering something. "Basically, there are people with the potential of having a Stand, but they need a trigger for it to appear: this is the trigger."

"If you pierce yourself with it, and you have enough strength of will and spirit, you will be gifted with a power", he explained, before frowning. "But if you don't… well, you die."

"_Oh_", Akira dumbly replied, suddenly relieved that he hadn't needed to go through that.

"Uh, that's cool and all", Ryuji interrupted the conversation again. "But you still haven't explained why Kamoshida has a palace thingy, or whatever."

"Oh, right", Morgana suddenly remembered the explanation he had been giving before. "Well, normal people's shadow's, that being their cognitive version in this world, don't have the power to actually be anything too dangerous in this world. _But,_ if the person has a Stand ability, along with the notion of self power and a _huge ego_… a palace can be formed. Basically, this crooked person's shadow becomes the rules of an area of the Metaverse, being shaped by the distorted desires in their hearts."

"So… not all people with Stands have palaces?", Akira asked.

"Oh, god, _no_", Morgana blew his lips in dismissal. "If that was the case, this place would be _way _more messed up. Only people with stands _and _distorted desires can have palaces. You could think of it as a competition: the more powerful and distorted a Stand user's desire is, the more powerful his Shadow is; therefore, the person's Shadow rules the place above all others. After all, there could be many corrupted users in one place, and the strongest of them is the ruler. Even if a non-stand user had desires and thoughts as crooked and corrupt as the others, his shadow's power wouldn't be able to compete with actual Stand users."

Akira and Ryuji lowered their heads in thought, thinking about the castle behind them.

"So that means…", Ryuji started, turning to Morgana. "That Kamoshida's desires are so fucked up that a palace was formed in the school, and that he has this super powerful Stand thing that makes him the ruler?"

"Exactly", Morgana confirmed, looking at the castle towering over them. "To be honest, I've seen even more powerful Palace rulers over the city: this one, while still dangerous, is kinda pale in comparison."

The thought of even stronger Stand users scattered around the city, each one ruling their own little kingdom, was enough to make Akira shudder. But something in the way Morgana explained made him think.

"You said you've been to other palaces?", he asked. "Why? Why were you here inside the castle?"

Morgana's eyes widened, the cat looking down on the ground pondering.

"Well… the truth is, I'm not sure of where I came from", he admitted, downcast. "I'm 100% sure that I'm human, I'm only stuck in this form. But something tells me that if I explore this world, I'll find a way to go back to being human."

Akira nodded, looking at the 'human in cat form' in front of him: while it was obvious that Morgana had the appearance of a domestic cat, something about him (beyond the fact that it talked), made him think that his theory wasn't far from the truth. Besides his physical appearance, he had all the traits a common person had, with naught and a sharp tongue to add.

"And that's why I need your help", Morgana cut his thoughts, making Akira stare at him with a confused look. "While I've been doing fine on my own, your _Helter Skelter _would be really useful on my side. Aaaand, seeing that I save you life…"

Akira pondered on his request. It was true, he did save their lives not even ten minutes ago. But the thought of actually _coming back _to that place made his opinion on the request dim somewhat.

"Look, we're grateful for your help, but-"

"DUDE!", Ryuji suddenly yelled, realizing something that had slipped their minds. "We forgot about classes!"

Akira's heart skipped a beat. _Shit_.

"Crap, if I'm late on the first day, I'm _dead_", Akira groaned, turning to Morgana. "How do we leave this place?!"

Morgana stuttered for a moment. "W-Wait, what about my request?"

"Look, we can talk about this later", he replied. '_Or never'_, if the possibility of never returning to that world was real. "Right now, we need to get out of here _now!_

Morgana frowned at him for a moment, before sighing. "_Fine_, we'll talk about this later", he said, before perking up again, confused. "Wait, what do you mean you don't know how to get out? How did you even enter this world in the first place?"

Akira's mind raced, trying to find the answer to Morgana's question. Okay, they were walking on the alley, then they… they…

"Dude, your phone!", Ryuji perked up, pointing at Akira's pocket. "Didn't you say it was acting weird?!"

Akira's eyes widened as he realized Ryuji was right. He swiftly grabbed his phone and turned the screen on, only to be faced with the same blue interface he had seen before it all happened.

"O-Okay, what now?", he wondered, panic setting in as he now realized that time was of the essence.

As if by magic, a single prompt appeared on the screen: 'Leave the Metaverse'. Akira never clicked a button so fast.

"_**Now leaving the palace. Thank you for your hard work."**_

Ryuji and Akira screamed once again as the world around them distorted and shifted, disappearing after a few seconds. Morgana, now left alone, let out a huge sight.

"Well, that's a shame", he lamented as he pondered about the pair. "But I must admit: the frizzy haired one had potential."

"I hope I see him again", he concluded, before scurrying off, resuming his investigation of the palace.

* * *

**Stand Name: **_**Helter Skelter**_

**Stand User: Akira Kurusu**

**Ability: Wielding the chains that once bound him as a prisoner of fate, **_**Helter Skelter **_**has impressive speed and strength, being able to swing its chains either as a weapon, a means of transportation and many more possibilities, depending on the user's wit.**

**It is said that one who is nothing has the potential to become anything, after all.**

* * *

** To be Continued -**

* * *

**A/N: **Oof, there it is. Not only we have our first glimpses of stand battles, but a nice little information dump on the end. Creating the rules of your 'own' universe has a charm of its own.

Other things:

As you noticed, Akira didn't change clothes, and Morgana is not a big headed mascot, his form being a simple cat as he is in reality. The reason for that is because I have some really interesting ideas regarding the ability to change other's cognition of your appearance, although I'll say that their iconic Phantom Thieves clothing will be present, don't worry.

Well, other than that, I really hope you liked the stand and their names. Coming up with cool ideas and names for them is the reason I even started this fic. I'll let you guys figure out where the names come from, though.

Don't forget to leave a **review**_**, **_as it is the fuel that keeps me going.

See ya.


	5. Masquerade

**Chapter 4: Masquerade**

* * *

Four hours.

They were _four hours _late.

"Seriously, what were you thinking?!", Kawakami, his short haired homeroom teacher, reprimanded with an exasperated tone. Akira followed her through the empty corridors of Shujin, evidence that classes were well on their way, and adjusted his glasses in mild embarrassment. "Being late on your first day? I understand getting lost for a while, but this is a whole new level!"

Akira listened to her complaints quietly, immensely frustrated by it but unable to argue with the woman. What would he even say? 'I entered some otherworldly castle and fought weird knights and some pervert P.E. Teacher with my punching ghost? Oh, and I also got knocked out for a while, so that's why I missed the first period' wouldn't be a good answer, as eloquent as it was.

Even himself didn't exactly understand what had happened back there: a whole world of cognition, shifting and swirling, full of dangers and notions so bizarre that his brain had some difficulty in comprehending. He would've thought he was insane, if it wasn't for Ryuji's own testimony.

And to top all that, there was the new and exhilarating sensation that he felt inside of him, its form ready to burst forth from inside him with nothing more than a thought. _Helter Skelter: _a 'stand', according to the strange talking cat that called himself Morgana. He understood the principle of it: the power of his soul, his will, his fighting spirit taken form. Its power had saved his and Ryuji's life, so Akira could ignore the sheer absurdness of such a thing appearing out of nowhere.

He had no idea of how that power came to be. Morgana mentioned that the strange arrow that he carried around could awaken such power from within a person, at the risk of killing the target. But Akira had no memory of ever being stung by the object: the only clue he had was the feeling _Helter Skelter _brought to the forefront of his mind, that being rage and anger towards the enemy, towards anyone who dared try to step on him. He felt that frustration before and during its awakening, so perhaps he had summoned it from sheer will? Or perhaps some people were born with it? Questions for another time.

Right now, he had to deal with more mundane matters: his absence from school for most of the first period, and the nagging from Kawakami. Both him and Ryuji were very surprised upon suddenly appearing in the middle of the street when they left the Metaverse, before being accosted by two police officers. The cops drilled on them for a few minutes about not being at school, making the two students scurry off to try and make it to class at an acceptable time.

Only to find the short haired teacher waiting for them, tapping her foot impatiently with a very unfriendly expression on her tired face. The two had swallowed dry, with Akira in particular expecting the worst: one slip and he would be expelled, after all. Everyone had made that very clear.

"Meet me on the roof after class. We need to talk", Ryuji had whispered to him, before walking off towards his own classroom. That left Akira to deal with Kawakami.

Surprisingly, the woman didn't take him straight to the principal: she sighed and motioned him to follow her, listening to Akira's shoddy excuses of being 'lost on his first day' with an uninterested face: It took a special kind of idiot to be four hours late, after all. Kawakami resigned herself to believe him, apparently not interested in making a bigger case out of it. Akira could see why: the woman was barely awake, dragging her feet and yawning once or twice on their way to the classroom. He didn't question it, obviously.

"Oh!", Kawakami suddenly perked up, making Akira raise his head. "Kamoshida-san, good afternoon."

Akira skipped a beat upon hearing those words.

The man, at least two heads taller than him, walked towards them at a carefree pace as if without any worries in the world, stopping in front of the woman with a wide smile on his face. Wearing a white shirt and red Shujin P.E. pants, the man looked very different from his otherworldly counterpart, but not enough so Akira wouldn't suck his breath as he saw the man who had tried to torture and kill them so casually before.

"Oh, good afternoon Kawakami-san", he replied, placing his hands on his hips and letting out a jovial laugh. Akira gripped his knuckles. "What's going on? Was class interrupted or something?"

"Well… not exactly", she sighed, pointing towards Akira behind her. "I was just taking Kurusu to class. He got lost on the way here."

Kamoshida apparently had just noticed his presence, prompting the man to frown, his expression now dangerous.

"_Oh_, is that right?", he huffed, staring at Akira with judging eyes and crossing his arms. Akira's arm twitched, almost taking a swing at the man instinctively: their last meeting wasn't exactly friendly. "Being late on your first day? You know you are on thin ice, Kurusu. I don't know how things were at your last school, but this is _Shujin: _one misstep and I'll personally throw you out, understand?"

Akira took a deep breath, calming himself down before raising his head and staring back at the man: he seemed so calm, almost cheeky, in the real world. No one knew the kinds of fucked up shit he was up to, no one knew what a rotten asshole he was (or they didn't care). The way he posed mirrored his Metaverse version, surely: high and mighty, in control of everything.

Akira simply nodded, still staring back at the man. He huffed again.

"Honestly, I don't even know why they would accept such a troublesome student. 'To show people that Shujin is able to rehabilitate young people back to society'?", he scorned, now talking to Kawakami. Sighing, he shaked his head. "You would think that my volleyball team would be enough to elevate this school to the top: I should have a talk with the Principal about this."

The volleyball team, Akira remembered. The ones Ryuji had seen back in the dungeon, being endlessly tortured and abused. He had wondered about it: if the other world Kamoshida was another version of him, what were those other people inside the place? Mirrors of their true selves? It couldn't have been the real ones, or someone would've noticed something. He should talk to Ryuji about that.

"Well, what's done is done, I'm afraid", Kawakami sighed, making Akira even more uncomfortable. They talked about him like he was simply a pushover, a problem to be disposed of like a lump of trash. For all he knew, he was exactly that to the school's faculty. "We should get to class. _Oh_, isn't there a volleyball rally next week?"

"Yep", Kamoshida grinned, rubbing his nose and faking embarassment. "It was kind of the Principal to give the students a time to develop their skills and show everyone how great of a sport volleyball is, hehe. We're aiming for nationals, after all: every bit of training is valuable."

So the team was aiming for national, Akira took note mentally. He didn't know anything about the team per se, but he had noticed quite a few trophies on the glass cases placed on the corridors of the school.

"Well, you two should get to class, I'm sure I'm stalling you guys", he joked, before leaning secretively towards Kawakami. "And be careful with him: who knows what such a troublesome student could do. Anything happens, you come straight to me, okay?", he offered, ignoring the fact that Akira could hear him.

The boy felt anger boiling inside him, but kept his composure: there was no benefit in attacking the teacher, at broad daylight at that. That disgusting man was more infuriating than he ever imagined, but once again, there was nothing he could do.

"Uh, of course", Kawakami awkwardly responded, not sure of what to say. "See you later, Kamoshida-san."

The man smiled again, walking past them. Before he did, he quickly glared towards Akira, with a look that said _'I'll be watching you'. _Akira turned his head slightly, watching as he made his way through the corridor, his head tall and posture firm.

What a fucking asshole. Now he completely understood why Ryuji had described him as he did.

He heard Kawakami sigh. "You should listen to him, you know?", she said, hands on her hips. "I heard you come to school alongside Sakamoto, of all people. If you actually intend to keep yourself out of trouble, you shouldn't mingle with that kind of person."

'That kind of person'? Akira had gathered that Shujin wasn't very tolerant with its undesirable elements, but to speak of a student in such a way was a whole new level. Ryuji seemed like a good guy, bravado aside, and the way Kawakami spoke of him told him more about the woman herself than the student. Something about her bothered Akira, be it her dismissive attitude or her constant belittling of him: she was not a pleasant person.

Then again, Shujin _was _one of the top prep schools in Tokyo. Expecting leniency and pleasantry from them was too much to ask.

Even so, Akira took the bait. "What's wrong with him? He seemed like a good guy", he told her, the two of them resuming their walk.

"Good or not, he has been causing headaches for the school for a while now", she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Having friends is good and all, but you should just keep your head down and stay away from bad influences."

Akira gripped his fists at her words. _Helter Skelter _burned inside him, but calmed down after a single thought. He needed to control his emotions better: he would hear a lot of unpleasant words directed towards him, so he should get used to it, even more than he already was.

"Okay, we're here", Kawakami suddenly announced, stopping in front of a wooden door identified as '2-D'. "Listen up: I'm gonna tell them that you were late because of family reasons, so you better confirm the story, all right? Less problems for the both of us", she explained, glaring at him.

Akira raised a brow, surprised. "Okay, I can do that", he answered. He didn't expect her to help him in any shape or form, so the little lie she concocted was welcomed even if she was doing it mostly for her own benefit.

She rubbed her temples, placing a hand on the doorknob. "And _please_, don't say anything weird", she pleaded, before opening the door and entering, Akira in tow.

As soon as he entered the room, the sound of loud conversation and whispering came to a halt, the entire class turning their heads to stare at him. Akira paused for a second with wide eyes like a deer caught in headlights, staring back at the whole crowd of students.

_Fuck: _they knew. How the _fuck _did they knew it already?!

Akira grinded his teeth and slowly followed Kawakami towards the front of the room, stopping besides her as she cleared her throat. A dead silence permeated the room.

"Well, as you may already know, another transfer student will be joining our class this year. Please excuse his tardiness: he had family matters to attend to", Kawakami announced, turning her head towards Akira. "Please, introduce yourself."

Akira took a deep breath, analysing the room. Dozens of cautious eyes glared at him, waiting for his next words. A few looked disgusted at him, others seemed afraid (Akira was fairly tall for a teenage student, after all), and others simply looked the other way, ignoring his presence completely.

He wasn't surprised: he expected as much. With a small sigh and a polite bow, he announced:

"My name is Akira Kurusu. It's nice to meet you all."

As no response came, Kawakami cleared her throat again, taking the reins of the situation.

"Thank you, Kurusu-san, we're glad to have you here", she forced herself to say. Someone snorted at her words. "Hmm, you can sit… there, behind Takamaki-san", she pointed towards the right side of the room, where a vacant seat stood.

As soon as he walked towards the seat, the whisperings and mutterings resumed, himself being the subject of most of them.

"_I thought he would be scarier. He seems kinda normal."_

"_Don't be stupid: it's just an act. The second someone looks at him the wrong way, he's gonna kill ya."_

"_I heard smuggles drugs, and even killed a guy."_

Akira didn't know whether to laugh or be angry at such rumours. _Killing _a guy? Whoever had leaked his records sure had imagination, although such was the nature of gossiping. He suppressed the urge to growl at their empty words, not wanting to make a scene in the middle of the class. He passed by several rows of chairs, every student leaning back as he walked close.

They were afraid of him? _Good_. Maybe that way they wouldn't pester him too much.

Approaching his seat, his eyes widened as he noticed the student that sat right in front of him: the blonde girl he saw before meeting Ryuji, still as beautiful as she was when he last saw her. He was taken aback for a split second, carelessly staring at her.

She slightly turned her head towards him, but not looking at his eyes. She wore a stern expression, a frown adorning her brows.

"_Lies", _she whispered. Akira blinked.

"Excuse me?", he asked out of instinct, but the girl ignored him.

"_Ohh, do they know each other?"_

"_So Takamaki already made a move on the delinquent? Man, she works fast."_

"_He should keep it in his pants, though: nobody messes with Kamoshida's girl."_

The whispers permeated the air around them, the words making Takamaki wince and turn her head towards the wall, where it was originally placed. Akira quickly walked a few steps and settled down on his chair, placing his bag on his desk and lowering his head.

Now that he thought of it, he remembered this Takamaki girl entering Kamoshida's car before Ryuji came running towards them, a few hours ago. This, added to the whispers from the other students, indicated that Takamaki was Kamoshida's girlfriend, something that was terribly disgusting in Akira's opinion. How old was he again?

He remembered the words from the other world Kamoshida: something about getting all the girls, their legs, their breasts and such things. Complementing the fact that the man wore nothing but a read cape and a thong, along with the nature of the Metaverse as explained by Morgana, it seemed that the P.E. Teacher was one sick perverted bastard. If Takamaki truly was his girlfriend, he wondered how much she knew about his true nature.

Kawakami started her lesson, interrupting his thoughts. For a while, he contented himself to simply pay attention and make notes, but after a while his mind buzzed with even more whispering and gossiping, the students around him shamelessly talking about him in a non-flattering manner.

They accused him of murder, smuggling, robbery, assault, arsony, prostitution, having ties with the Yakuza, _sexual _assault, among many others. Some talked with fear in their voices, a few seemed like they wanted to teach him a lesson, others had nothing but contempt on their tongues, and a select group wondered why couldn't all transfer students be like the last one.

Nobody wanted him here. They despised him, hated him and feared him. They wanted him gone, back to whatever hole he had crawled from. Akira growled internally, their constant buzzing making his patience run thin. He wished for nothing more than to be done with that place, and after a whole year inside a classroom that hated him, he would be glad to never ever having to stand at the same building as those whispering pricks.

But inside him, a flame raged on. The tickling of chains, evidence of the sheer power he held within his spirit, almost took over the noises from outside. Even with all the oppression and hate he would receive from everyone around him, he felt a small comfort in his heart: he was not weak. He was not defenseless. He had something no one else had, something that brought warmth and joy among a sea of contempt. They wanted to hate him? To despise him? So be it: he would do the same towards them.

Akira smirked devilishly, and he could feel _Helter Skelter _doing the same inside his mind.

* * *

Goro Akechi lifted the cup of coffee towards his mouth, sipping it. After a moment, his expression turned sour from the taste, cursing his expectations that he would find quality coffee inside the SIU building. Frustrated, he adjusted a button from his uniform suit and brushed a lock of his long brown hair from his face, sighing.

After that, he resumed the pastime he had adopted for the last hour: watching the newcomer detective Josuke Higashikata and prosecutor Sae Niijima completely ignore each other as they had their afternoon lunch. Niijima he was already acquainted with, having worked with her for the past months of the Mental Shutdown cases: a hard woman, one he had much respect for. But the detective he only knew from reputation and from the brief introduction they had before sitting down for lunch: the bastard son of the late Joseph Joestar, one of the wealthiest moguls in the world, coming from his small countryside town to help in a city wide investigation. Akechi had to admit he had some faint initial respect for the man because of his family status, but his own situation had been very different. Not all bastards were the same, after all.

As Sae had put it, she intended to begrudgingly introduce the two of them, judging by her attitude in the past hour alongside the state Akechi had found them on the elevator. The prosecutor and the detective hadn't started on good terms, it seemed.

He lowered his cup, smiling and clearing his throat.

"So, detective Higashikata: I assume you've been briefed on the case? Have you been given an office already?", he innocently asked.

Higashikata, who at that point seemed extremely focused on not spilling the cream inside his _croissant_, lifted his head in confusion.

"Huh? _Oh_, I mean, yes, they found a room I could use", he cleared his throat as well, placing his lunch back on the plate and adjusting his purple tie. "Niijima-san already gave me the files on the case, and I spent the night reviewing them on my desk. It's a lot to take on, but I already have a good idea about the ins and out of it."

Sae ignored the conversation, glaring at the menu. Akechi hummed in response, shaking his head: his initial impressions of the detective indicated a bubbly personality, not accustomed to the ways of the big city. The man took almost fifteen minutes to choose a dessert, something that bad bothered Niijima-san: apparently, she wanted that meeting to be over as soon as possible.

"I see. Well, to be honest, I'm a bit jealous: even if I'm working with the police, I don't have access to all the cases' files. I'm still a civilian, after all", Akechi gave a serene laugh, glancing at the detective's reaction.

The man intertwined his fingers, analysing the boy with curiosity in his eyes and a smile. "Ooh, you're the one they've been calling the new 'Detective Prince', right?", Higashikata asked, raising a brow. "But you're not a relative to the Shirogane family?"

The memory of his brief work with Naoto Shirogane passed through Josuke's mind. Terribly smart girl, if not a bit stiff.

"Nothing like that", Akechi clarified, a bit annoyed by the question. His reputation as a detective had been built by himself alone, not some family tie or another. In fact, that small piece of respect he had for Higashikata was almost completely overshadowed by the distaste at the fact that he was tied to such a wealthy background, bastard or not. "In fact, my training came from a place you should be very familiar with: I frequented S.P.Y.T."

Higashikata raised a brow again. "I'm sorry, what?", he asked, his knowledge of english confusing him for a moment.

Akechi smiled. "Speedwagon Program for Young Talents. Quite the charming place if I may say so, despite the name", he explained. Contrary to his words, his experience in the institute had been terribly annoying, with the place filled with morons of all sizes and forms. He had mentioned it mostly as a way to provoke the detective, who was already bothered by the constant reminders of his ties, if Akechi's sources were correct. "Were you involved with the Program? I learned quite a lot there."

His expectations were answered, as Higashikata fidgeted on his seat, uncomfortable by the Foundation being mentioned. Akechi smirked internally.

"Uh, well, I'm not really that involved with the Foundation's business", he explained, a flicker of annoyance passing on his face. "I didn't even know about… S.P.Y.T.'s existence."

They heard a huff from the other side of the table, both turning their heads towards Sae Niijima, who now had her arms crossed. It seemed that she wanted to join the conversation.

"May I ask _where _you have trained then, detective?", she asked, more subdued this time. Her discussion with him had her toning down her aggression, Josuke noted, if only by a fragment.

"Same as everyone else, prosecutor: the academy. I took criminology, criminal law and forensics at college as well", he explained, focusing on his courses. If the woman wanted to doubt his skills, she could at least be aware of his certifications. Josuke turned back to Akechi. "Do you intend to take this same path, Akechi-san?"

"Why, yes, if all goes smoothly", Akechi answered charmingly, smiling towards Josuke. "In fact, I'm sure I'll have much to learn from you, detective. Experience is invaluable in such a line of work."

Josuke smiled and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Heh, well, then I'll be sure to give you a good example."

Akechi nodded, giggling at his words but scoffing internally. From what he gathered up until this point, the man had a bit of a goofy side to him, probably the reason Niijima disliked the man. His words were serious, but sometimes he would behave in childish manners, almost like a rookie on his first day at his job.

Which, now that he thought about it, wasn't far from the truth.

"Maybe Akechi should be the one giving you a good example", Sae told Higashikata sarcastically, her arms still crossed. "He has been involved with the case for a few months now: he has been of great help. Maybe you could learn a thing or two."

Akechi raised a brow. Sae, the ice queen of the SIU, complimenting him? Now that was something you didn't see every day.

"You know what, Niijima-san? You're completely right", Josuke smirked in response, not taking her bait. "If I can work directly with Akechi-san and the police, I'll be able to do some good work in no time. Maybe then you'll see what I'm capable of", he jabbed back, not wanting to confront the woman but still willing to push her buttons.

Sae scoffed, but the corner of her mouth lifted in a faint grin. "I guess time will tell", she said, before checking her wristwatch. "Lunchtime is over. We should head back, detective: still a lot of work to do."

"Actually, Niijima-san, I was wondering if I could talk with Akechi-san for a while", Josuke perked up, smiling innocently towards Sae. "Since we'll be working together, y'know."

Sae raised a brow, scanning the two of them momentarily, before sighing.

"Very well, but be quick about it", she conceded, lifting herself from her chair and walking off. "I'll see you another time, Akechi."

"Until then, Niijima-san", Akechi waved her off with a smile, before his attention turned back to Higashikata.

Truthfully, he wanted to know everything he could about the man, so his request for an extended lunch was opportune: how would he affect the investigation, how dangerous the man was, how deep his ties with Speedwagon were, anything that could help Akechi build a profile on him.

And anything he could use to dispose of the man if he became a liability. The power inside himself stirred for a moment, but quickly calmed down.

Akechi watched as Higashikata wrapped his _croissant _in a napkin, before pointing towards the doors with a smile.

"Do you mind if we talked outside? I need some fresh air", he chipperly asked. Akechi adjusted his leather gloves and smiled back.

"Certainly."

* * *

Josuke munched on his lunch as he walked besides Akechi, his pleasant expression never leaving his face. The first thing Josuke had taken notice was how nice the kid was. Too nice. Like someone forcing himself to be presentable and friendly.

It made him feel weird.

"May I ask something, detective?", Akechi started, resuming their conversation. They had just left the building, Josuke leading them towards a corner close to the street, where the buzzing of thousands of people passed by them constantly. "I noticed some tension between you and Niijima-san. Is there a reason for that?"

Josuke finished his food, throwing the napkin in a nearby trash can, before scratching his chin thinking. He couldn't blame Akechi for being curious: he and Niijima had known each other for less than a day and were already at each other's throats. If he was being honest, it was mostly her fault: her constant doubts and insults towards his credentials and tribulations were irritating enough to make his patience thin. Although, he couldn't exactly blame her: the case was bigger than anything he had ever tackled, and his inexperience with countrywide investigations could hinder their progress somewhat.

Then again, he doubted the police of the SIU could ever capture a Stand User capable of citywide mental shutdowns. His presence was needed: Jotaro had trusted him with this.

"You could call it a difference of opinion. She doubts my training, my ability as a detective… everything about me, really. I can understand that: I'm not exactly used to the big city, you know?", Josuke meekly answered, not sure of how to explain it. He thought about it for a few more seconds, before laughing dumbly. "Uh, and I guess some of her arguments hit a sore spot, that's all. It's nothing to worry about, I'm sure we'll reach an agreement eventually."

They had to, Josuke mentally noted, or else many more lives would be lost.

Akechi pondered on his words: Sae could be a very antagonistic person when she wanted to. Being one of the few female prosecutors in a male dominated environment was undoubtedly unnerving, the woman having to prove herself at every step of the way, sometimes even having to fight for her place on the SIU.

Although, Akechi hoped their antagonism kept itself alive for a bit longer: he didn't actually need their investigation to progress, after all.

"I see. Well, if you're willing to prove herself to Sae-san, I'm sure she'll reward your efforts eventually", Akechi humored him, leaning on the wall and watching the crowd of people pass by them. "She respects character, and nothing else, I swear."

"Hm, I understand. I hope you're right, Akechi-san: she's the last person I wanted to piss off, being basically my boss for the time being. I'm here to help you guys, after all", Higashikata hummed, now pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Akechi raised a brow at that: he was used to police officers having smoke breaks here and there, but for some reason didn't expect the detective to have such a vice. The man seemed impeccable on his personal image: brushed hair, clothes perfectly fit, a healthy appearance. If he was a heavy smoker, chances were he would've detected any signs of it.

"Not the healthiest of habits, detective", he said as Higashikata placed one slender tube in his mouth and lit it.

"Hm? Oh, sorry", the detective apologized, seemingly embarrassed. "I've been meaning to stop, but it's harder than it seems. _Oh_, you're a minor, right? Just a quick one and we'll be back inside, don't worry."

Akechi frowned at that, but didn't offer any other comments about it. Honestly, he didn't give a shit about his habits, only the instinctive worry for his own health. Second hand smoking was a problem, after all.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask you about… S.P.Y.T., right? That was the name?", Josuke suddenly questioned, sucking the cigarette and releasing a cloud of smoke.

It had been a lie, of course: he wasn't a smoker, at least not a heavy one ever since college. It was a simple artifice he would use in a few moments, when the time was right.

"Ah, yes, that's correct", Akechi answered, amused by his sudden interest in the matter. "They had special courses I took alongside highschool, mostly deductive thinking and criminal psychology. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the program", he lied. He would've been there anyway, S.P.Y.T. or not: his abilities far surpassed what that pathetic institute taught him. Shido had made sure of that.

"Yeah, I get it", Josuke replied, shaking his head. "I wasn't aware of its existence, though: contrary to what most people think, I'm not that involved with the foundation's business."

"But you used to be, at least at some point?", Akechi asked with curiosity.

"My father, mostly", Josuke lied, puffing another cloud of smoke. He suppressed the urge to coff. "I'm sure I don't have to explain it: you probably know who my father was."

"Millionaire, real estate agent, explorer", Akechi listed, before smirking. "And a major investor of the Speedwagon Foundation."

Josuke smirked back. "Exactly. But, even if I don't have much contact with the Foundation, I still hear a thing or two every once in a while", he continued. "There's been a lot of talk about the Mental Shutdowns, even back at my hometown. Whoever is doing this, it must be a very dangerous person."

"Someone capable of causing such a phenomenon from a distance? Of course: probably the most dangerous person Japan has ever faced", Akechi replied. He snorted internally.

"Correct", Josuke agreed. His expression had become slightly sharper as the conversation went on, Akechi noticed with a frown. "You see, there is a side of the Foundation that is mostly kept a secret from the public. It deals with certain problems that most people couldn't even comprehend, problems beyond their understanding."

Josuke slowly approached Akechi, making the boy raise a brow. What was he getting at? Was he talking about…?

The man stopped in front of him, still sucking from the cigarette's butt. "I said that I'm not that involved with their business… except, of course, for that particular branch of the Foundation", he explained, releasing another puff of smoke.

His expression now seemed dangerous, purple eyes staring at Akechi from way above, the man towering over him.

"...is there a point you're trying to make, detective?", he asked defiantly, staring back at the man.

He understood now. _Of fucking course. _How could be so stupid? It should've been clear to him from the start: the rumours he had heard, the origin of his abilities, Shido's connections with the Foundation. The Joestar clan was known for its outlandish exploits, feats that could only be possible if...

"Yes, actually", Josuke interrupted him, smiling mischievously. "Wanna know something interesting?"

Akechi tightened his grip. "What is it?"

The detective once more released a cloud of smoke, this time towards Akechi.

"If a Stand User inhales cigarette smoke", he explained. "A small vein twitches on their nose."

Akechi skipped a beat, instinctively raising his hand towards his nose. Halfway there, he gasped and stopped, staring back at Josuke Higashikata, who now had a smug grin on his face.

_The fucker tricked him._

"Well, I can't believe it actually worked", he snorted.

Akechi gritted his teeth, slowly stepping back from Josuke. Fuck, _fuck. _He needed a way out, fast.

"I don't know what you're talking about", he tried to argue in vain. At the same time, he gathered his will and started to discreetly summon his power, ready for any sudden movements.

To his surprise, Josuke waved a hand in dismissal, urging him to calm down.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you, kid", he laughed, before placing his hands on his pockets. "I don't wanna fight you, if that's what you think."

Akechi stared at the detective for a few seconds, analysing every movement of his. His posture seemed relaxed and calm, and he couldn't see any evidence of any Stand ability being activated. He scanned his surroundings, but didn't find any signs of a surprise attack.

Begrudgingly, he relaxed as well, adjusting his posture but still cautious. "I should've known you had an ability similar to mine. You Joestars are a notorious bunch, after all."

"Yeah, you could say that", Josuke smiled. "We're not your usual kind."

Akechi adjusted his tie, still staring at Josuke. His mind raced, eventually settling on reality: even if the cat was out of the bag, it changed nothing. Tokyo was home to an immense population of Stand Users, most of them harmless. Whatever reasons the detective had to expose him in such a way, he doubted he had any notions about his activities or even that other World.

With that, he calmed himself.

"So, how did you know?", he questioned, lifting his arms on his sides. "Was it a hunch, or did you figure it out the moment you saw me?"

"More of a hunch", Josuke explained, a hand on his chin as he analysed Akechi. "After many years, you can tell with a look: the posture, the attitude, etc. It's not hard once you know what you're looking for."

The silence stretched itself for a few more moments, before Akechi's patience ran out.

"What now? You're gonna arrest me? Take me to the Foundation and lock me up?", he accused, a speech already forming on his mind. "If I've used this power to help in my investigations, is there something wrong with it?", he said, playing the detective prince card: someone eager to seek justice at any cost, even with his own arrest. He gathered that Higashikata must've used his own powers at work as well, so he expected the man to relate to it somewhat.

His gamble paid off, as the man raised his hands once again in a gesture of peace.

"Nothing like that, Akechi-san", he replied calmly, before crossing his arms. "I'll not ask what your ability is, or if you have used it for your own benefit. Hell, I'd be very hypocritical if I accused you", he laughed to himself.

"Actually, I have a proposition", Josuke raised a finger in the air, making his point. Akechi raised a brow crossed his arms, ready to listen and be done with it. "From what I've heard, you're the shining example of a detective, solving an impressive amount of cases even at your age. I'm not surprised you involved yourself on this one."

Akechi adopted a determined expression. "It's my duty to use my skills to solve this case, Stand ability or not", he said, his expression never betraying him. "My deductive skills are as real as they say: even if I didn't have this power, I'd still be here."

Josuke hummed in approval, smiling.

"Then listen: you may already know this, but the culprit is most likely a Stand User as well", he explained. "The Foundation sent me here to investigate and neutralize him or her. After all, I doubt the SIU can solve this matter alone."

"I suspected that. Things like Mental shutdowns don't happen naturally", Akechi replied.

"You're right: they don't", Josuke smirked, now approaching Akechi with a slow pace. "It's my job to find the culprit, as I doubt the police of the SIU have the means to do it. Otherwise, they would've sent me here."

"There is a fact that I've learned all these years, Akechi-san: Stand Users attract stand users. It's the reason I found you, it's the reason there will be many obstacles in this case, and it's the reason I'm sure we'll find the culprit eventually."

"Since you are a Stand User yourself , I must admit that I was at a disadvantage here alone", Josuke snorted, scratching the back of his head. "I'm good, but not good enough to simply tear the city down to find the culprit."

"I'll need help, Akechi-san. Preferably, _your help_."

Akechi looked down to the ground, faking a state of deep thinking. It seemed that Higashikata had no evident suspicions over him, a fact that tranquilized him immensely. He didn't know his ability or how powerful the man was. Being his enemy could prove problematic and mess up his plans.

He should report that to Shido, whether he wanted to or not. The man would probably be in possession of one file or another that could help him.

If he allied himself with Higashikata, he could add another cover to himself: he was already the detective prince, but if he were to involve himself with the Foundation's agent, the curtain of smoke around him would be even wider. The knowledge of that world was severely limited, and he doubted that Higashikata even knew about its existence. Shido had made sure of that.

"So, what do you think? Deal?", Josuke questioned, extending a hand with a determined smile.

Akechi answered with his own, secretively malicious one. He grasped the man's hand with his gloved one.

"Deal."

* * *

** To be Continued -**

* * *

**A/N: **I'm sorry for such a rushed chapter, things have been crazy around here. I fully intend to come back later and do some severe rewriting, so bear with me.

The beginning of the story is moving at an exceedingly slow pace, but soon enough the story will flow more dynamically, don't worry. Some chapters barely contain more than two scenes, something I intend to change in the future.

See ya.


End file.
